Caregiving from a Latin American perspective

Silvia Margarita Baldiris Navarro

Fundación Universitaria Tecnológico Comfenalco, Cartagena, Colombia Postdoctoral Fellowship, Athabasca University, Edmonton, Canadá

What means CARE for LA?

According with United Nations Development Programme (PNUD): • Care can be defined as "the set of activities and relationships

aimed at achieving physical and emotional needs of the target population care that is not autovalente: children / as, dependent elderly and People with disabilities.”

• Care involves: – a job (material dimension), although it is not socially recognized as

such and is not always paid; – cost (economic dimension); – a bond (emotional dimension); – a public good, and that adds economic value and involves a grant to

the whole of society.

What means CARE for LA?

According with United Nations Development Programme (PNUD):

• Care policies make up the space of social policy that deals with the provision of goods, services, values and emotions involved in the care of dependents

Feature of Care in LA

• Care has been in charge of families (familiarization) and women (feminization). The social protection systems in the region rested on the assumption that care is a responsibility of families. Therefore there is an insufficient presence of public policy.

• The region is working in achieving a greater gender equality: Women are over-represented in the activities of home care and care when dealing in the paid labor market.

• In the region this activities involve a more precarious work (domestic work, care Community), often not well paid.

Feature of Care in LA

• Female dedication to the tasks related to the care economy, it is not a free decision. It is biased by social, economic, labor and politicians that permeate society.

• The sexual division of labor assigns specific roles, both men and women, and is the result of a series of inequalities inside the home.

• This has been justified, claiming a supposed comparative advantage against men.

Hours in a week doing unpaid and paid work (Home and Women)

Hours in a week doing unpaid and paid work (Home and Women)

• Women in all countries work more hours in total than men, especially in Uruguay and Mexico

• Women tend to work more hours in unpaid activities, while men devote more to paid employment.

• Rural women spend many more hours of work in general and in particular on unpaid work, both comparison with men as with urban women.

• According to Argentina’s national statistics and census institute, INEC, women dedicate twice as much time as men to caregiving: 6.4 hours a day compared to 3.4 hours. Among women who work outside the home, the average is 5.8 hours.

• Women participate less in the labor market (the activity rate women have a difference of 25 points from that of men: 55% vs. 80%). Women who are mothers participate even less than non-mothers (60% vs. 80%).

Hours in a week doing unpaid and paid work (Home and Women)

• In the field and in the city adult women devote more hours to work unpaid than young women.

• The generational gap found in terms of hours spent on unpaid work could be because young women are not yet independent and, therefore, the family responsibilities and care needs are lower.

Hours in a week doing unpaid and paid work (Home and Women)

Latin America is facing what has been called the caregiving crisis!

The demographic landscape of Latin America shows that it is closing the demographic dividend.

The number of people aged 80 years and more

it increased by 6 times until 2050. It means there are more people in need of care.”

Implications

• At the same time the proportion of the population able to provide care has shrunk, basically because of the massive influx of women in the labour market.

• LA is facing a bottleneck between the caregiving needs according to the current population structure and the drop in family caregiving capacity

Advances from the X Regional Conference on Women (2007)

COUNTRY LAW SCOPE

Argentina Law 1168 of the Legislature (2003)

The Department of Statistics and Censuses from the Government of the City of Buenos Aires must investigate systematically and regularly on the distribution of the time used by women and men residents

Bolivia Constitución del 2009 (Article 338)

It is recognizing the value of unpaid work women and undertakes to quantify in the accounts public

Colombia Law 1413 from 2010 It forces to incorporate Satellite Account with measures and contribution to the PIB of women's unpaid work.

Ecuador Constitución de 2011, Capítulo IV, Sección 2., Artículo 36

State commitment to make statistics and to include satellite accounts as part of the System National Accounts.

México Agreement 9a/IX/2010 Specialized Technical Committee on Information with Gender Perspective. Support for the implementation of the Housework Satellite Account of Mexico.

Perú Law 29700 from 2011 Include a satellite account of unpaid work in the National Accounts. Apply surveys about The use of the time.

Puerto Rico Project of Law 2011 - Expediente No 18.073

Law project to include care economy to the System of National Accounts

Advances some countries

COUNTRIES ADVANCES Gross Domestic Product

Colombia Module in a survey with many topics 17,2

Uruguay Module in survey applied to families 26,6

México National survey 22,6

Surveys to measure the time use and assess of the care economy :

Early childhood • Average of child by Women:

– City 2,27; in the field 3.8 (2015)

• Public services of child care are low quality and not cover all needs and time.

COUNTRIES INSTITUTION Services

México They do not consider women who are in the field, not encourage more active participation of men in the work of parenting.

IMSS —Instituto Mexicano de Seguridad Social

A system of care for the children and daughters of working women that favors favors women workers in the formal sector the economy, but leaves out informal women.

Centros Asistenciales de Desarrollo Infantil (CADI)

Poor urban population Care of children between 45 days old and 5 years and 11 months.

Early childhood COUNTRIES INSTITUTION COVERAGE SERVICES

Colombia

Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF). Programmes: 1. Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar (HCB). 2. De Cero a Siempre 3. Informal Care (At home with family)

24,9% It consists of centers for children under six years of low resources, which are leaded by a community mother chosen by the community. Each center opens in the morning till about 14:00 in the afternoon.

1 2 3

Early childhood

COUNTRIES INSTITUTION COVERAGE SERVICES

Uruguay

Integrated system of care services Programmes: Centres of attention to Childhood and the family (CAIF)

40% These are centers focus on children between zero and three years old to support they in developing social and cognitive skills, and to receive the necessary care during this time of their life. Including people with disability.

Care services to the elderly population

• The design and implementation of care policies to older adults are not increasing in the same rhythm than old population.

• Current policies are oriented to three main focuses: physical and social conditions, economic security and health: – Pensions – Labour market

– Just some countries implement economic help to people outside of the labour market, it means vulnerable people

• Care services for old people are private, governments not offer public care services

Labour Market

• The urban labor force participation of women has increased substantially in the region in recent decades, widening the gap between the need for care services and the provision thereof

• It is not the case of rural women where the traditional role of women in the family is more pronounced.

Big challenges

• To consolidate comprehensive public care systems in LA countries that contribute to deal with our reality, considering:

– Public policies must encourage job sharing unpaid more equally between men and women, promoting actions towards a public and private sector participation in the economy of care at homes.

– Increasing female integration in employment, increase the efficiency and productivity of countries.

– Promote higher overall productivity of our economies.

Public policies should include

• Care services that relax the time responsibilities of mothers and housewives.

• Support for income-generating activities of women in the labor market

• Incentives to reform the social conception of gender roles

• Legislation to promote equality and respect for rights.

Caregiving from a Latin American perspective

Silvia Margarita Baldiris Navarro

Athabasca University, Edmonton, Canadá Fundación Universitaria Tecnológico Comfenalco, Cartagena, Colombia