Towards people-centered Comprehensive Care Systems and Policies: Dialogues between Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union

To promote the care agenda, the EU-LAC Foundation, through the EU-LAC International Women’s Network, in close collaboration with UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Global Alliance for Care and the National Institute for Women of Mexico (INMUJERES) conducted a series of five interregional dialogues on comprehensive care systems.The cycle of dialogues, held between November 2022 and September 2023, sought to place the priority populations that receive and provide care at the center.

This document presents the main conclusions derived from this cycle of dialogues due to the exchange of experiences between experts from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The first chapter offers a conceptual framework on comprehensive care systems, defining the principles, components, priority populations, and recognizing the diverse realities of how care is received and provided. The second chapter presents the main advances and commitments made in LAC and EU countries in care, such as the Buenos Aires Commitment or the European Care Strategy.

The third chapter presents the advances, challenges, successful initiatives, and lessons learned to put persons with disabilities, older persons, children and paid and unpaid care workers at the center of comprehensive care systems.The document ends with a chapter with recommendations taken from the dialogues and some reflections by way of conclusion, calling for the promotion of a bi-regional pact for care between LAC and the EU at a time when strategic relations between the two regions are being renewed.