Global Grassroots Women Caregivers Summit

Global Grassroots Women Caregivers Summit:

Leading Caring Development & Community Resilience in Our Settlements and Municipalities to Build Mutual Self Help and Collective Action Platforms that Catalyze Gender & Social-Economically Just Development 

The Global Grassroots Women Caregivers Summit will be convened by the Huairou Commission in collaboration with the INMUJERES and UN Women. Designed as a multi-day dialogue and action planning event, the Summit will bring together diverse grassroots constituencies – leaders of rural and urban poor: community caregiver groups, farmers, vendors, women’s producer cooperatives, parent associations, childcare workers, and locally organized domestic/household worker organizations – who have provided care and support to neighbors and the wider local community for 5 to 20+ years. Together, community caregivers will deliberate over and decide upon a bottom-up declaration & advocacy campaign to drive implementation of a Just Care Economy Agenda that recognizes grassroots women’s contributions to supporting caring societies and respects, rewards and resources through sustained investment in livelihood strengthening, access to productive capital, social protection and decent pay for care work, including in the post-COVID-19 recovery plans.

The Summit will take place from 28 to 30 June 2023 and use a hybrid format that includes an in-person gathering in Mexico City. Regionally diverse leaders of grassroots women’s groups providing care (paid & unpaid, formal and informal) will meet as a constituency during the first two days to finalize their priority actions and advocacy plan. On the third day, they will then be joined by member states, local authority, trade union and CSO representatives – who have pledged to use their political influence to place a gender just care economy at the center of the post Covid economic recovery — to agree on a one-year advocacy campaign to jointly secure dedicated financial support to underwrite decent work and social protection benefits for grassroots caregivers and to replicate effective strategies and practices that build power and expand impact. Philanthropists, and other financiers – with a track record in respecting and investing in the leadership of grassroots women’s organizations and networks- will be invited to share their insights and suggestions and pledge political and financial support for a multi-year advocacy drive.

Summit Objectives:

Aligned to the vision of the Global Alliance for Care (GAC), the Global Summit is designed to be a platform for strengthening the representation and collective voice of grassroots women and their organizations so they can be formally empowered and recognized for driving a bottom-up, transformative agenda for a gender just economic recovery that positions care work—and the provision of care and support– as a cornerstone of vibrant, inclusive sustainable economies. “Caring for the Caregivers” is a pivot in this theory of change—as relevant to the Global South as the North.

• Contribute to Building an Evidence Base and Inventory of Caregiver Constituency Groups
• Reflect Regionally to Nuance Critical Care Issues, Priorities and Opportunities
• Celebrate and Amplify Grassroots Women Caregiver Contributions to Caring Societies and Vibrant Local Care Economies