Territorializing care in Venezuela: Miranda advances equality, economic autonomy, and access to justice

^{Náhury Escalona, Senior Expert at UN Women in Venezuela, Eddith Pulido, Sole Authority for Women in Miranda, and UNDP Specialists in Venezuela, during the installation of the Regional Technical Care Committee “Miranda Cuida” on December 10, 2025, in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: UN Women/Carla Martinez.}  

The disproportionate burden of unpaid care work remains one of the deepest structural barriers faced by women, limiting their access to justice, employment, political participation, and economic autonomy. Territorializing care systems enables addressing this inequality at its roots by transforming practices and structures that have historically placed the burden of care on women. The “Miranda Cuida” experience highlights the link between the right to care and women’s effective access to justice. Its approach emphasizes that guaranteeing care is not only a social necessity but also a key condition for justice to be exercised in real, everyday, and transformative ways.

In Venezuela, recognizing care as a fundamental human right moved from aspiration to a tangible legal framework in 2021, with the enactment of the Law on Care Systems for Life. The law defines care for life, identifies those who receive care and those who provide it, and guarantees caregivers’ rights, including self-care, autonomy, recognition of their contribution, professionalization, access to employment and recreation, and shared responsibility. It also ensures adequate working conditions, access to policies and programs, opportunities for holistic development, and time dedicated to personal well-being. The system promotes caregiver registration and training, gender equality, and community-based care, incorporating a differentiated approach within social protection policies. 

Institutional and territorial coordination to build a care system in Miranda 

Building on this framework, the Women’s Secretariat of Miranda State launched a participatory, multisectoral process to territorialize the right to care. As part of this effort, on 10 December 2025, the Regional Technical Care Roundtable “Miranda Cuida” was established, bringing together public institutions, civil society organizations, feminist collectives, community leaders, caregivers, and international organizations to advance the development of a Regional Care Plan.

The process continued in January 2026, with the participation of several state secretariats involved in the issue. This initiative seeks to provide input to the State Gender Equality Plan and to define a training plan for implementing a comprehensive care system in Miranda. 

Territorializing the right to care: a step toward equality 

This process has received technical support from the UN Women Non-Resident Office in Venezuela and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), both of which align with their efforts to strengthen care policies and promote more inclusive and equitable systems. These initiatives aim to improve institutional responses to structural inequalities that particularly affect women in vulnerable situations, including community caregivers, older women, and those with multiple caregiving responsibilities. 

^{Installation of the Regional Technical Care Committee “Miranda Cuida” on December 10, 2025, in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: UN Women/Carla Martinez.}  

^{Miriam Bandes, Senior Regional Advisor, greets participants during the inauguration of the Regional Technical Care Committee “Miranda Cuida” on December 10, 2025, in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: UN Women/Carla Martinez.}  

In Miranda State, this approach has translated into concrete actions such as territorial diagnostics, capacity strengthening, strategic planning, and coordination among diverse actors to advance toward a comprehensive care system that places women, historically the primary providers of care, at the center of public policy.

The process continues through Technical Roundtables that convene local actors in coordination with UN Women and UNDP. These spaces aim to collaboratively develop a care map for Miranda, focusing on municipalities, communities, and households to understand better how care is organized in daily life and to guide more inclusive and effective public policies.

These Technical Roundtables also support the creation of integrated care services for people in need of care, as well as the design of services and strategies to reduce the disproportionate burden historically placed on women. They promote mechanisms of shared social responsibility, in which the State, communities, families, and the private sector share caregiving responsibilities, while opening opportunities to strengthen women’s economic autonomy through time redistribution and new livelihood opportunities.  

^{Monica Marrero, Governance Specialist at UN Women Venezuela, outlined the objectives of the session during the second meeting of the Care Roundtable, held on January 30, 2026, in Caracas. The meeting built on the agreements reached in the first session in December. Photo: UN Women/Jennifer Jardim.} 

Access to justice is also access to care 

Promoting justice requires advancing laws and practices that mitigate, prevent, and address systemic inequalities. In Venezuela, the Law on Care Systems for Life represents a milestone, as it was enacted even before Advisory Opinion OC-31/25 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Right to Care, which recognized receiving care, providing care, and self-care as an autonomous, universal, and enforceable human right. The Bolivarian Government of Miranda State has taken a significant step toward territorializing the law through a participatory, rights-based approach centered on the real needs of women and girls.

Guaranteeing the right to care also means ensuring women’s economic autonomy, their full participation in public life, and a life free from discrimination. In this sense, access to care systems is not only a social response but is directly linked to a broader understanding of justice, one expressed in everyday life. A comprehensive care system can therefore function as a tool of social justice by creating real conditions for the effective exercise of women’s rights. 

Care as a Public Policy Axis for Advancing Equality 

More than a one-time initiative, “Miranda Cuida” is emerging as the foundation for a public policy aimed at strengthening the state's care system. Early results include new institutional partnerships, greater coordination among stakeholders, strengthened capacities, the generation of key evidence for decision-making, and the active participation of women throughout the process.

Advancing toward equality requires sustained public policies grounded in a rights-based approach and justice systems that recognize care as a central component for guaranteeing dignity and opportunities for women and girls. The experience in Miranda moves in this direction by positioning care as a cornerstone of more inclusive policies aimed at reducing inequalities across territories.