Putting care back at the centre of cities and territories

Covid has shown the fundamental role of care in our societies under all its forms: childcare, elderly care, social services and services for the disabled

Stressing the critical role played by all frontline LRG workers beyond health in the mist of the pandemic - education, water and sanitation, and waste workers among many others – Pavanelli emphasized the essential contribution of care workers, overwhelmingly women, in formal or informal employment, remunerated or unpaid, working within care structures or in the household.

“Covid has shown the fundamental role of care in our societies under all its forms: childcare, elderly care, social services and services for the disabled”. Our societies and economies would collapse without the often silent, unacknowledged, and hard daily care work. “We need to reconsider care in our societies, not as a market but as a collective responsibility. Better wages and working conditions for women workers in care are key to enable their participation in all spheres of society”, she added.

Pavanelli was joined in the opening session by the Mayor of Bogotà Claudia Lopez; Carolina Cosse, Mayor of Montevideo; and Thembisile Nkadimeng, Mayor of Polokwane.

The event was one of the LRG Women Session organized by United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) at the 2021 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65) on the theme of “Women in public life: Fostering Inclusive Cities & Territories”.

PSI shared with the audience the Manifesto to rebuild the social organisation of care” calling to:

• Recognise the social and economic value of care work (paid or not) and the human right to care.

• Reward and remunerate care work with equal pay for work of equal value, decent pensions, dignified working conditions and comprehensive social protection.

• Reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women.

• Redistribute care work within households, among all workers, eliminating the sexual division of labour and between households and State.

• Reclaim the public nature of care services and restore the duty and the primary responsibility of the State to provide public care services and develop care systems that transform gender relations and women's lives financed through fair and progressive taxation

The PSI General Secretary also referred to the 2020 UCLG – PSI Joint Statement in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic “Strong local public services for a safe world”, which calls on local authorities to engage in constructive dialogue and collective bargaining with LRG workers and their unions to find shared solutions to guarantee essential service continuation, while maintaining the highest standards of safety for public service workers and users.