The COVID-19 Pandemic is Exacerbating the Care Crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Everyone relies on care provided by other people during most of their life. Care work encompasses the production of goods and rendering of services that are essential for life, such as preparing food, providing physical and emotional support, transmitting knowledge and values, and tending on people to ensure their well-being. Care work highlights the interdependence between people who receive care and those who provide it (whether paid or unpaid), and that care should be understood as a right (to provide care, to be cared for, to not provide care and to care for oneself). The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the care crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean1