Local Governments in Colombia and Ecuador Launch the “Time for Care!” Community Practice to Strengthen Territorial Care and Time Policies

^{Representatives of local governments from Colombia and Ecuador, together with UN Women and strategic partners, during the launch of the “It’s Time for Care!” Community of Practice in Quito. Photo: Paola Castilla.}

The Community of Practice serves as a peer-learning platform that, over the coming months, will bring together public institutions, organizations, and strategic stakeholders committed to advancing care and time policies. Through the exchange of experiences, technical dialogue, and the collective generation of knowledge, the initiative seeks to strengthen local capacities to move toward more inclusive, co-responsible, and sustainable societies. 

“Our aspiration is for this community to go beyond occasional exchanges. We want it to become a permanent collaborative network that strengthens care and time policy agendas across territories and contributes to the development of comprehensive care systems with a gender-responsive and intersectional approach,” said Bibiana Aído, UN Women Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean.

^{Paolina Vercoutère Quinche, Vice Prefect of Imbabura Province, Ecuador; Miriam Bandes, UN Women Representative in Ecuador; and Antoni Vicens i Vicens, Delegate of the Government of Catalonia to the Andean States, during the launch of the “Time for Care!” Community of Practice}

Miriam Bandes, UN Women Representative in Ecuador, emphasized: “Talking about care is not about discussing a ‘social’ issue detached from the economy. It means questioning what we understand by the economy, what we consider work, how we measure wealth, who bears the costs of well-being, and what kind of development model we want to build. Feminist economics has taught us that markets do not operate in a vacuum; they rest on millions of hours of unpaid and precarious work, carried out predominantly by women. It has also shown us that sustaining life must be placed at the center—not at the margins—of public policymaking.”

The first in-person session consisted of three working days that combined technical dialogue, exchange of experiences, and field visits. Representatives from different levels of government shared progress made in Ecuador and Colombia on care policies, highlighting territorial initiatives led by the Municipality of Quito, the provincial governments of Pichincha and Imbabura, the municipalities of Pasto and Tumaco, and the Departmental Government of Nariño. Participants also reflected on the main challenges involved in consolidating local care systems. 

The joint working sessions provided an opportunity to learn firsthand about experiences implemented in Ecuador through technical visits to the Warmi Pichincha Center and the Care Point at Casa Somos Roldós–Pisulí, where delegations exchanged lessons learned on management models, institutional coordination, and the delivery of care services.

The meeting also included a dedicated discussion on the right to time and time policies as key tools for advancing more inclusive and co-responsible cities and territories. This session provided an opportunity to prepare the next stages of the Community of Practice while reinforcing the shared vision of building a permanent network for exchange and cooperation among participating territories.

^{The “It’s Time for Care!” Community of Practice promotes peer learning and the exchange of experiences to strengthen care and time policies across the territories of Colombia and Ecuador. Guided visit to the Warmi Plaza República Center of the Prefecture of Pichincha, Ecuador. Photo: Paola Castilla.}

The Community of Practice is part of the “Time for Care!” project, an initiative that promotes knowledge management and interterritorial cooperation to strengthen care and time agendas. Throughout the process, tools, recommendations, and lessons learned will be developed to support the design and implementation of public policies that recognize care both as a right and as a cornerstone of sustainable human and territorial development.

^{Participants in the “It’s Time for Care!” Community of Practice took part in a guided visit to learn about territorial experiences and strengthen the exchange of knowledge on care and time policies at the Warmi Plaza República Center in Pichincha, Ecuador. Photo: Paola Castilla.}

Over the coming months, the Community of Practice will continue through a series of virtual sessions exploring topics such as care and peacebuilding, evidence-informed decision-making, and time policies. The process will conclude with a second in-person gathering in Cali, Colombia, where participants will learn about urban planning experiences with a care-centered approach and further strengthen the exchange of knowledge to advance territorial policies that place care at the heart of development.