Social security and pension systems are part of the social protection regimes established by Latin American and Caribbean states to mitigate the main risks of the life cycle (illness, disability, occupational hazards, unemployment, old age, and death). One hundred years after the first social security, health, pension, and social welfare systems emerged (Mesa, 1978), we observe negative outcomes in terms of low coverage, widespread social vulnerability among certain groups, and persistent economic and social inequality, which is the counterpart to the extreme concentration of income and wealth (Chancel et al., 2022). The responses implemented by successive governments to economic crises that impact social well-being, development models that weaken state capacities, or health crises that expose deficiencies in healthcare and hospital care, demonstrate that they have not fully achieved universal, effective, and quality access to healthcare services or sufficient and sustainable pensions. Furthermore, the lack of primary healthcare, adequate nutrition, and other essential services persist. It highlights the lack of safe and healthy environments in most of our countries in the face of a growing commodification of services that the state should provide as public goods and services for the benefit of citizens and communities.

National governments have primarily promoted cash transfers, which have alleviated income inequality for specific groups and are attempting to move towards building social rights. However, they continue to uphold the labor-centric perspective of social security, which defines access as being contingent upon having a subordinate, registered, salaried job. Thus, the lack of coverage is exacerbated by recent forms of work organization and contracting in highly mobile labor markets, through specific projects and tasks that compete with the use of robotics and artificial intelligence. This employment and these occupations are carried out in informal conditions, either due to employers' lack of tax registration or because workers are independent contractors, self-employed, or hired on a fee-for-service basis.

If we add to this situation the consequences of a cycle of low economic growth that has been recorded in the region since 2010, exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19, which has resulted in an average GDP growth rate of 0.8% for the period 2014-2023 (ECLAC, 2025), plus the social effects of the ecological crisis, the tensions due to hegemonic disputes, fiscal restrictions, the diversity of new work activities in informal conditions, plus the recognition of care work, it urgently compels us to consider a different construction of security and social protection, as well as to systematize what we observe and investigate, and to reflect on and propose new ways of access, organization, and social sustainability based on proposing inclusive policies that result from broad participation and dialogue among those involved, highlighting the gender perspective and the recognition of care work.

The concept of social protection against risks and uncertainty that gave rise to contributory social insurance has undergone significant changes since its institutionalization at the end of the 19th century. Profound economic and demographic transformations, along with the maturation and evolution of social insurance, have redefined both the scope of social protection and the various ways in which it is implemented. At the same time, the design and implementation of social security reforms have been shaped by the prevailing development model and the theories that underpin it.

Different theoretical approaches influence the public policy instruments employed by nation-states and, consequently, can give unique characteristics to social protection systems. These systems are configured through diverse combinations of levels and forms of intervention by the state, the market, families, and social networks, with the aim of addressing social risks as efficiently as possible. This interaction of theoretical perspectives gives rise to divergent, and sometimes even antagonistic, views on the implementation of social security: from those who conceive of risk financing as a strictly individual and market-oriented responsibility, to those who define protection as always collective and intergenerational, under state responsibility. Between these two positions, other perspectives also emerge that recognize the need to integrate both, taking into account the magnitude of demographic challenges, the current economic context, and unmet social protection needs.

A central aspect of the analysis of theoretical relevance is the population aging process in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. With varying rates and intensities, the countries of the region are progressing toward more advanced stages of the demographic transition, albeit within a process of convergence in population structures. While aging is a global phenomenon, in LAC it takes on a particular character: it is developing rapidly without social protection systems having achieved broad coverage and sufficient benefits to meet the challenge. The rapid change in the components of demographic dynamics—mortality and fertility—has meant that aging in the region is occurring at a faster pace than that observed in Europe. The main consequence is that LAC has had less time to prepare for the challenges posed by this process (Ham, 2003; and Chackiel, 2004).

In Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries, various conceptual models define the characteristics of social security and pension systems. After a period of implementing defined contribution systems, the region maintains a strong influence of state-administered contributory models, despite the problems of unsustainability exacerbated by the demographic transition and the decline of industrial development models at the end of the 20th century. With the adoption of new development models oriented toward the global economy, some LAC countries decided to implement protection based on the individual capitalization model, even though a significant proportion of the population held precarious jobs without social protection (Uribe, 2002). Furthermore, the region exhibited a high incidence of poverty, underemployment, and informal employment, which limited the scope of individual financing for old age (Uthoff, 2016).

Nearly fifty years after the first capitalization model was implemented in the region, its results have failed to guarantee adequate financing for old age. However, the return to public defined-contribution systems faces the challenge of aging populations and less dynamic economies than in the past. Additionally, the region's economies face specific challenges, such as the low level of development in labor markets, the structural generation of unprotected informal employment, and the fragmentation of social security systems, all of which act as barriers to expanding coverage and sustaining benefits in the long term.

The difficulty in finding structural solutions has led to the implementation of non-contributory pension programs throughout the region as an emergency measure to mitigate poverty in old age. These programs are implemented under new theoretical perspectives based on well-being and human rights and seek to move beyond contribution-based labor protection models. Non-contributory protection has proven effective in providing income to people who depended almost entirely on family and social networks or on continuing to work into old age, and it is recognized that they have achieved broad coverage in a relatively short period. However, they have the disadvantage of lacking the self-financing mechanism of social security systems, which generates budgetary constraints that compromise both the adequacy of benefits and their long-term sustainability.

In the contemporary debate on social security, the feminist theoretical approach is gaining increasing relevance. Many social security specialists have incorporated a gender perspective into the foundation of their proposals to reshape social security. Gender approaches to social security highlight the persistence of inequalities in the allocation of pension resources as a result of structures that produce and reproduce gender. They emphasize that women tend to be concentrated in domestic and caregiving tasks, which restricts their economic participation and limits their access to contributory social security, with the consequent impact on their ability to accumulate retirement savings. They also denounce the fact that the social security system was designed under a model that assumes the typical worker is male, employed in the formal sector, and maintains stable income throughout their working life, while women are relegated to the domestic sphere. This model, they assert, It reproduces unequal workloads and creates limitations for women to finance their old age, by not sufficiently recognizing the fragmented work trajectories and care responsibilities that characterize the female experience.

It is clear that different theories exist for addressing the problems of social security and pension systems. However, whatever theory is adopted, it is necessary to return to the essentials: to reclaim, discuss, and rethink the validity of the guiding principles of social security—universality, solidarity, redistribution, equality, equity, uniformity, financial sustainability, and public responsibility—in order to build a system that responds to the needs of the population, without neglecting the engineering and technical aspects that underpin it (Tortuero, 2012). Likewise, it is essential to link this discussion with the implementation of progressive fiscal policies aimed at guaranteeing a more just society, based on a better redistribution of income and the fruits of production.