Below are some of the notable quotes from the panel.
Noelia Mendez, DAWN
“The unpaid care work performed by households, along with the necessary conditions to carry it out and self-care, is overlooked and undervalued in traditional economic theory. Nevertheless, it plays a systemic role in the economy by ensuring that the workforce renews its energy to reinvest it back into the market. Although there is no direct economic compensation, it makes a significant contribution.”
Riva Jalipa, Amnesty International
“Domestic care work in the Philippines is unique. 12% of all households have or have had one of their family members working overseas. This contributes to 10% of the GDP and from 2 million foreign workers, 200,000 are domestic workers. So, the Philippines is contributing to a cheaper domestic labour force externally which is helping its own economy. But the negative effect of that is that it weakens the social fabric and has poor physical and mental outcomes. A national care policy in the Philippines would be both an economic growth and poverty reduction”
Maria Julia Eliosoff, FES Argentina
“[The social organisation of care in Argentina] is doubly unjust because it is both feminised and is mainly concentrated within households. The role of the State is extremely subsidiary, attempting to patch up gaps where households cannot reach and heavily relying on community involvement.”
Margarita Lopez, PSI
“For the first time in Colombia, we have a progressive government where we can influence the construction of public care services. However, the challenge is to ensure that these services have the necessary funding and resources, as well as the labor rights we need to guarantee decent work for caregivers, rather than the precarious work we are currently witnessing.”
📹 Watch the full event recording here for more insights from the panel.
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