Outcome LAC_D_2.1

National care systems enable Latin America and the Caribbean women's economic autonomy.

UN Women has advanced the i mplementation of a regional agenda for the promotion of Integrated care systems . In this regard, in 2024 UN Women ACRO is providing technical assistant and policy support to 11 countries in LAC region ((Brasil(1), Chile(2), Colombia(3), Dominican Republic(4), Ecuador(5), El Salvador(6), Guatemala(7), Honduras(8), Mexico(9), Panama(10), Peru(11),) to advance in policy and normative frameworks for integrated care systems. As a result, in 2024, laws for the creation of the National Care System were approved in two countries: Panama, with Law 1038 approved in March 2024, and Brazil, with Law 15,069 approved in December 2024. These countries became the fifth and sixth in the region—alongside Uruguay, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Ecuador—to enact specific legislation. In previous years, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru had already been discussing legislative proposals, supported by UN Women. In 2024, Chile joined these efforts, making significant progress in drafting a bill (currently in its initial constitutional phase), as well as the Dominican Republic, where several legislative proposals were introduced in the Senate this year and are scheduled for discussion in 2025. Additional national and local strategies, policies and/or action plans for the promotion of care have been developed and adopted in the region with UN Women’s RO support in (Brazil: national level(1) and Belén do Pará(2); Chile: national level(3); Colombia: national level(4), Bogotá(5), Villavicencio(6), Cumbal(7), government of Antioquia(8), Medellin(9); Ecuador: national level(10), and Quito(11); El Salvador: national level(12); Guatemala: national level(13); Honduras: national level(14) and Trifinio region(15); Mexico: national level(16), Monterrey(17); Panama: national level(18), Juan Diaz(19); Peru: national level(20), Villa El Salvador(21), Comas(22) y Tambopata(23); Dominican Republic: national level(24), Azua(25) and Santo Domingo Este(26). Overall and up to December 2024, this results in a total amount of 26 national and local strategies, policies and/or action plans for the promotion of care have been developed and adopted in the region within 11 countries with the support of UN Women in 2024. In terms of promoting the financing of care policies and systems , during 2024 UN Women ACRO supported the calculation of cost and returns of investment in care in 3 countries (Chile, El Salvador and Belén do Pará in Brazil) using the modeling and tool to design financing strategies of comprehensive care systems developed and launched in 2022. This adds to the existing costing exercises supported by UN Women in Argentina, México, Panama, Peru and Paraguay. As part of these efforts to promote care financing, the learning community on "Realities and Challenges of Financing Care Policies and Systems, " driven by UN Women in collaboration with Oxfam LAC, the Global Care Alliance, the Feminist Economics Table of Colombia, and the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (LATINDADD), reached over 130 participants from Latin America, Europe, and Africa. These participants, representing sectors such as government, social organizations, academia, and civil society, reflected on the centrality of care in public policies, highlighting the need for fair and progressive financing strategies. As part of its coordination role within the United Nations system UN Women partnered with UNDP-ILO-ECLAC-UN Women Interagency Initiative on Gender, Care and Social Protection promoted the 5th edition of the virtual course towards integrated care systems: training for action in public policy in the second semester of 2024 through a 7-week length course. As a result, in 2024 more than 442 policy makers from national governments, local governments, civil society and women organizations, trade unions and other reported to having increased their capacity to advancing the agenda and implementing integrated care systems. At regional level, in 2024 UN Women ACRO continues the implementation of the project “Transforming Economies. Towards the Recognition, Reduction and Redistribution of Unpaid Domestic and Care Work in Latin America and the Caribbean” with the support of AECID. As part of the results achieved, the Latin America and Caribbean region has strengthened its knowledge base in promoting public care policies , establishing a robust collection of best practices, diagnostic methodologies, regulations, and public policy instruments to drive care policies and systems at the local level. A total of 11 countries and more than 35 local public care policy experiences have been identified and documented. The project has facilitated the exchange and dissemination of 27 local care policy and system experiences with over 230 participants, including representatives from governments, civil society, academia, the private sector, international organizations, and cooperation agencies from 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This was accomplished through the international seminar “Between the Global and the Local: Experiences in the Development and Territorialization of Care Policies and Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.” As a fundamental strategy of the project, progress has been made in developing a Territorial Care Management Model , strengthened and discussed through the contributions and perspectives of specialists from national and local governments, academia, civil society, international organizations, and cooperation agencies. This process has resulted in two key documents: Local Care Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean and Contributions to the Territorial Management of Comprehensive Care Systems . These documents represent a significant step forward in formulating strategies for the management and development of care systems at the local level. This effort responds to the urgent need to structure comprehensive care policies and systems that address the specific territorial inequalities and challenges of our region . Both documents will serve as the foundation for designing the guidelines that ECLAC and UN Women will present at the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Mexico in 2025, will address the theme "Transformations in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Spheres to Promote the Care Society and Gender Equality." Also at the regional level, during 2024 UN Women continued to work to consolidate Care as a political priority and commitment in the intergovernmental sphere . In this regard, f ollowing up on the Buenos Aires Commitment adopted in 2022, UN Women together with ECLAC achieved to position Care as the main issue of discussion for the next Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean to take place in Mexico City from August 12 to 15, 2025. UN Women has also positioned care in the bi-regional European, Latin America, and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) agenda. In collaboration with ECLAC and the EU-LAC Foundation, it champions the adoption of a Bi-regional Pact for Care to enhance cooperation in public care policies and develop comprehensive care systems across both regions. The pact was promoted in the Joint exchange of views on “The Bi-regional Pact for Care between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean” in the European Parliament held on 24 January and at a side event within the framework of the 68 CSW, in the High-level Dialogue: ‘Foundations for a Bi-Regional Pact of Care between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union’ on 14 March. UN Women also played a leading role in the consultative process on the right to care before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR ), submitting an advisory opinion,

National care systems enable Latin America and the Caribbean women's economic autonomy.

UN Women has advanced the implementation of a regional agenda for the promotion of Integrated care systems . In this regard, during 2023 UN Women ACRO provided technical assistance and policy support to 14 countries in LAC region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay) to advance in policy and normative frameworks for integrated care systems. As a result, in 2023 Ecuador approved a specific legislation to implement a comprehensive set of care policies, becoming the fourth country of the region, -together with Uruguay, Costa Rica and Venezuela– with and specific law approved. In Colombia the law 2281 of January, 42023 that creates the Minister of equality and Equity and Equality stablishes the creation of the national care system. (art 6.). In Argentina Decree 89/2023 (February, 2) creates the Economic recovery, employment generation and social inclusion programme for domestic workers. Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru also have discussing legislative projects underway which counted with the advisory of UN Women. At local level the Municipality of Bogota adopted the agreement that regulates and institutionalizes the District Care System in Bogotá. Furthermore, additional national and local strategies, policies and/or action plans for the promotion of care have been developed and adopted in the region with UN Women’s support Overall and up to December 2023, this results in a total amount of 30 national and local strategies, policies and/or action plans for the promotion of care have been developed and adopted in the region within 11 countries with the support of UN Women. In terms of promoting the financing of care policies and systems , during 2023 UN Women ACRO supported the calculation of cost and returns of investment in care in 13 municipalities of , using the modeling and tool to design financing strategies of comprehensive care systems developed and launched in 2022. This adds to the existing costing exercises supported by UN Women in . As a result of these exercises, it is estimated that 24.8 million people will benefit from care services by 2030 in these 5 countries. Furthermore, using gender responsive budgeting tools, in 2023 UN Women was able to identify that from 2019 to 2021, governments of Latin America and the Caribbean allocated USD 4.17 billion in their national budgets on care programmes and policies. In terms of capacity building , with the support of UN Women until 2023, near 2,000 care workers had already been trained in the whole LAC region , reaching an estimated 1.85 million indirect beneficiaries. Furthermore, as part of its coordination role within the United Nations system UN Women partnered with UNDP-ILO-ECLAC-UN Women Interagency Initiative on Gender, Care and Social Protection to promote the 4th edition of the virtual course towards integrated care systems: training for action in public policy in the first half of 2023 through a 7 week length course. As a result, in 2023 more than 219 policy makers from national governments (45%), local governments (14%), civil society and women organizations (8%), trade unions (13%) and other policy makers (20%) reported to having increased their capacity to advancing the agenda and implementing integrated care systems aligned with the Buenos Aires Commitment resulting from the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. At regional level, in 2023 UN Women ACRO started the implementation of the project “Transforming Economies. Towards the Recognition, Reduction and Redistribution of Unpaid Domestic and Care Work in Latin America and the Caribbean” with the support of AECID. As a result, a comprehensive analysis of regulatory frameworks, policy instruments and mapping of good local practices in Latin America to promote the recognition, reduction and redistribution of care work has been developed serving as the basis for organizing a regional seminar of exchange of experiences that will take place in February of 2024. Also at the regional level, during 2023 UN Women continue to work to consolidate Care as a political priority and commitment in the intergovernmental sphere . In this regard, f ollowing up on the Buenos Aires Commitment adopted in 2022, UN Women together with ECLAC achieved to position Care as the main issue of discussion for the next Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean to take place in Mexico in 2025 through an agreement adopted during the Sixty-fifth Meeting of the Presiding Officers held in Santiago, Chile in October 2023. Furthermore, taking advantage of the special opportunity opened by the EU-CELAC Summit held in Brussels in July 2023, UN Women worked to position Care also at the center of the Bi-regional discussions . In this regard, UN Women in alliance with ECLAC and the EU-LAC Foundation and the support of the government of Argentina, promoted the adoption of a bi-regional Pact for Care between Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union, with the aim of promoting cooperation in public policies and comprehensive care systems between the countries of both regions. The proposal of the Pact was presented during the EU-LAC Gender Equality Forum held in Berlin on May 11 and 12, convened by the EU-LAC Foundation, where, in addition to Argentina, the governments of Germany, Mexico and Spain added their support. The pact was also included in the Declaration of the EU-LAC Civil Society Forum held in Brussels in July, prior to the EU-CELAC Summit . Furthermore, the proposal of the bi-regional Pact for care was included in the commitment to advance gender equality signed by several women parliamentarians from the EU and Latin America during the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) held in Madrid in July 2023, urging "to strengthen bi-regional cooperation to ensure the right to care, to receive care and self-care in conditions of equality and quality and therefore, to advance in the consolidation and financing of comprehensive care systems" as well as in the Declaration of the Bureau of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly held in October 2023 in Santo Domingo expressing the "need to adopt a gender approach in the framework of EU - CELAC relations, promoting a bi-regional pact for care based on the European Care Strategy and the Buenos Aires Commitment that enhances cooperation on public policies and comprehensive care systems". Finally, in October 2023, the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, during the Sixty-fifth Meeting , agreed to encourage ECLAC and UN Women together with the EU-LAC Foundation, to promote the bi-regional pact for care "with the aim of promoting cooperation on public policies and comprehensive care systems with a gender perspective between the countries of both regions, within the framework of the implementation of the Buenos Aires Commitment and the European Care Strategy, and to promote cooperation initiatives in this area with other regions of the world". In 2024 the work to position the Pact will continue. Finally during 2023 UN Women ACRO continue to support care work at the global level, supporting the Global Alliance for Care which already reached 168 members (including national and local governments, international organizations, private and philanthropic organizations, and civil society organizations), becoming the largest multi-stakeholder engagement platform to date that promotes a transformation of the care economy globally. As part of the Alliance and in partnership with the EU-LAC Foundation, ECLAC and the National Women’s Institute of Mexico (INMUJERES) UN Women ACRO conducted a series of five interregional dialogues on Comprehensive Care Systems , to place the priority populations that receive and provide care at the center.