In March 2021, in the context of the UNCSW61, a group of organizations from the feminist, trade union, tax justice, and human rights movements launched the Rebuilding the Social Organisation of Care Manifesto as an alternative way out of the global care crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, ESCR-Net stated that A New Social Pact on Care is Urgent, and in 2023, IDWF was part of the No Care Economies without Domestic Workers Manifesto. These initiatives widely agreed on the critical role of decent work for care workers and the public responsibility of States in financing, regulating, and providing care public services and systems.
Today, global governance is set to address poverty and strengthen institutions and financing with a gender perspective at the next 68th session of the CSW. It would be impossible to talk about women’s poverty and dismantle it without touching on the unjust social organization of care in societies built on the coloniality of power and the intersectionality of women’s labor extraction.
Likewise, it becomes illusory to speak of care as a common and public good at the service of society without recognising the current trend towards its commodification, monetization, financialization and privatization. These trends aim to turn care into a lucrative asset of private interest, facilitated by the capture of states favoring capitalist accumulation.
A joint study by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky and Lena Lavinas entitled “Gender Bonds: Do they leverage or threaten women’s rights?” presented to the experts meeting in advance of UNCSW68 confirmed the financialization trend. It points out that this form of gender bond operates under the mechanism of a so-called sovereign debt, in which governments are captured to finance their gender equality policies, including care.
In this context, PSI, DAWN, ActionAid, OXFAM, CESR, GI-ESCR, GATJ, TJN, Womankind, FEMNET, IDWF, and ESCR-Net have joined forces to call on governments to:
1. Reveal the forces and private interests driving gender equality financing, including care and forcing privatization.
2. Describe how the obligations-based approach of the international economic system should look to deliver and materialize the human right to care
3. Show how inclusive and more democratic global tax cooperation can contribute to the fulfillment of women’s rights at all levels.
4. Mainstream care-centered policies into climate action.
5. Highlight gender-transformative quality public care systems and social protection as the main drivers of real economic change for womxn.
Agenda & Speakers
March 8, 2024 – 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Hosted by Public Services International, DAWN, ActionAid, OXFAM, CESR, GI-ESCR, GATJ, TJN, Womankind, FEMNET, IDWF, and ESCR-Net
Panel # 1
14:30 – 15:05
Rebuilding the Social Organisation of Care with Decent Work for Care Workers and opposing privatisation
- Gloria Mills, PSI
- Adrian Paz, IDWF
- Moderator: Yiping Cai, DAWN
Panel # 2
15:05– 15:48
A feminist approach towards a new macroeconomic architecture for the human right to care.
- Mahinour ElBadrawi, CESR-GATJ
- Alejandra Lozano, GI-ESCR
- Mela Chiponda, ESCR-NET
- Moderator: Amina Hersi, OXFAM
Final Declaration/Manifesto
- 15:48- 16:00
- Wangari Kinoti, ActionAid
