Mexico Meeting Urges Rights-Based National Care Policy

Mexico held its third National Meeting on the Future of Care, convening federal, state and municipal authorities, civil society organizations, unions, academia and international bodies to advance a national agenda for sustainable, rights-based care policies. 

At the forum, community caregiving groups and private-sector representatives emphasized that care must be recognized as a structural component of Mexico’s social and economic development. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), women in Mexico perform more than twice as much unpaid care work as men, a disparity that speakers called both a systemic inequality and a legal concern now framed within human rights standards.

This year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an Advisory Opinion recognizing the Right to Care as an autonomous human right. Additionally, during the XVI Regional Conference on Women, governments across the region adopted the Tlatelolco Commitment, which requires countries to advance measures that address the gendered division of labor, integrate care into national planning processes, and develop policies that encourage media outlets to recognize and promote the value and shared responsibility of care work.  

Speakers highlighted that these advances were the product of long-standing collaborative work and should guide the consolidation of a national care system with a feminist perspective and centered on the dignity of caregivers. They stressed the importance of institutional strengthening across all levels of government, coordinated with organized civil society, to ensure measurable and long-term outcomes.

In Mexico, roughly 80% of care work is done by women, often requiring girls to drop out of school to care for family members. Recent regional data presented by CELAC in Mexico showed that 30% to 40% of women who leave the workforce cite care responsibilities as the reason. Meanwhile, according to data by ELCOS, 20 million women cannot access paid employment because they dedicate themselves to unpaid care work. As populations age and social support systems remain underdeveloped, the burden of care will continue to fall largely on women. 

According to Alfonsina Peñaloza, Director of Latin America and Global Grantmaking at Co-Impact, the issue of care cannot be separated from broader economic development. “Investing in care systems benefits everyone — it supports economic growth and improves quality of life. A well-functioning care system distributes responsibilities equitably across genders, as well as between governments and the private sector,” she says. She notes that according to INEGI, unpaid work has an economic value of MX$7.2 trillion in Mexico. If unpaid work were an industry, it would account for 24% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a figure higher than the value of economic sectors such as manufacturing (22%) or trade (22%).

Despite its economic importance, Peñaloza stresses that care cannot be understood solely through the lens of financial value creation. “Care is not just a service; it is the foundation of how societies function. When we treat care only as a sector to expand rather than a shared social responsibility, we lose sight of its deeper contribution to community well-being and equality.”