SANTIAGO, Chile – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched a new initiative called “IDB Cares” that focuses on expanding care services and infrastructure to improve the lives of children, older adults, and people with disabilities, while creating jobs and accelerating economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
IDB Cares is the IDB’s institution-wide effort to address a region-wide shortage of high-quality, affordable care services. The initiative will foster investment to create the jobs needed to meet the current demand and the expected increase in demand for paid caregivers.
The initiative comes as the region needs to prepare for rapid demographic shifts: by 2050, one in four inhabitants will be over 60.
Expanding care services offers long-term economic benefits by helping increase women’s participation in the workforce, which is one potential avenue for increasing growth in the region. Eliminating barriers to women’s workforce participation could increase the region’s GDP by 20 percentage points, according to an IMF estimate. Greater care availability could also reduce workplace absenteeism and increase talent retention, boosting private-sector productivity.
IDB Cares includes financing for care-sector entrepreneurs through the Bank’s private-sector arm, IDB Invest, and promotion of innovative care startups via its venture-capital arm, IDB Lab.
IDB Cares is built on three pillars:
1) Governance and financing: Strengthening institutional frameworks for comprehensive care systems and policies.
2) Coverage and quality of services: Increasing investment in quality care services.
3) Shared responsibility for care: Promoting a more balanced distribution of care responsibilities within society and households.
“Strategic investments in care services and infrastructure are critical for sustainable economic growth, productivity, and generating opportunities for all in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said IDB president Ilan Goldfajn, who launched the initiative at the Annual Meetings of the IDB and IDB Invest in Chile. “IDB Cares embodies our commitment to care services and infrastructure to improve the lives of children, older adults, and people with disabilities, as well as promote more balanced distribution of care. Let’s all care about care,” he added.
The initiative leverages the IDB’s extensive experience in supporting the care economy. This includes advising Mexico on creating a national care system, supporting Uruguay in improving care for people with disabilities who require assistance, and working with Costa Rica on implementing a long-term care system.
Care is a broad concept. The IDB understands care as paid and unpaid physical and emotional assistance to children, older adults, and people with disabilities. It also includes domestic work. Care also extends well beyond the household and is a vital economic sector that sustains life and increases productivity in other industries.
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