Second World Summit on Social Development
Organized by UNRISD, the Government of Chile, ECLAC, ILO, UN Women (with the support of the Global Care Alliance) and CLACSOThe Second World Summit for Social Development provided a platform for political dialogue and collective reflection on care governance as a cornerstone of inclusive social development. It emphasized that care systems can only be sustainable and equitable with robust, inclusive, and accountable governance structures, contributing to the outcomes of the World Summit for Social Development+30 (WSSD+30) through a focus on governance.
Key topics discussed
-Governance as a multidimensional challenge involving institutional design, financing, rights, participation and coordination.
-Care as a human right, a structural public policy and a public good, essential for social cohesion and inclusive development.
-Feminist and inclusive governance frameworks that focus on equality, redistribution, co-responsibility and recognition of care work.
-State responsibility and sustainable financing for care systems, including long-term investment in transformative care systems and countercyclical strategies that protect public social spending.
-Regional coordination and institutional coherence in Latin America and the Caribbean and integration into national development agendas.
-ECLAC has proposed the new paradigm of the care society, which, from a human rights perspective, places the sustainability of life and the care of people and the planet at its core. This paradigm provides a comprehensive approach, promoting shared responsibility among families, communities, the State, and the private sector, and advancing the redistribution of care work between women and men (see the Tlatelolco Commitment, adopted in August 2025 at the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean).
-Participatory, multi-level and co-constructed governance models, involving civil society, feminist movements, local governments and care workers.
-Political conditions necessary to sustain governance reforms, including broad coalitions and institutional continuity.
-Integration of care governance into broader social development and WSSD+30 agendas.
Key Recommendations for Action / Commitments for the Doha Solutions Platform
-Adopt rights-based frameworks for care governance, aligned with:
*The ILO's 5R Framework (Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward and Represent care work), which provides coherence and direction for advancing care systems that are rights-based, accountable, universal, transformative and inclusive.
*The ILC Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy.
*Advisory Opinion No. 31 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of 2025, which recognized care as an autonomous human right and emphasized the obligations of States to guarantee its effective exercise through adequate public policies, services and infrastructure.
-Recognize and invest in care as a public good, ensuring shared responsibility and promoting investment in care as an engine of productivity, inclusive growth and well-being.
-Strengthen institutional coordination and coherence across sectors, territories and levels of government, including social protection policies and care policies.
The design and implementation of comprehensive care policies (care systems) require strong coordination in all areas of public policy—such as social protection, health, education, labor, infrastructure and fiscal policy—and also across different levels of the State, with the active participation of civil society and cooperation with the private sector.
Strengthening intersectoral and multilevel coordination allows services, infrastructure, and benefits to respond coherently to people's care needs, minimizing gaps, overlaps, and territorial inequalities.
Ensuring adequate and sustainable financing for care systems (ILO 5R Framework). In light of the care society paradigm, investment in care is not seen as a cost but as an engine of productivity, equality, and well-being. Furthermore, with the Seville Commitment, adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, countries affirmed that investing in the care economy is a strategic investment, as public financing for care can stimulate employment, strengthen social protection, and expand fiscal space through inclusive growth, creating a virtuous cycle between equality and development.
-Build a future-oriented and resilient care governance system capable of responding to demographic changes and other structural factors such as the precariousness of the labor market, gender norms and inequalities.
-Promote participatory governance models that involve civil society, feminist and care networks.
-Integrate care governance into national development planning and WSSD+30 commitments.
-Promote long-term political commitment and stable institutional arrangements to consolidate care as a structural public policy.
-Invest in comprehensive care systems and ensure decent work for care workers, recognizing the contributions of both paid and unpaid care work.
-Strengthen alliances to strengthen governance capacities and accelerate care systems and policies.
-To promote transformative, multi-level, multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder actions towards care societies, recognizing care as a foundation of social sustainability and renewed social contracts.
-Strengthen statistical systems to measure the care economy and the care society.
