The Crisis in Care and How to Create More Caring Societies
by Justine Williams
On January 23, while global leaders gathered in Davos to discuss “rising inequality, trade tensions, technological disruptions, climate change and geopolitical uncertainty,” the Cuba Platform and collaborators sat down for a round table seminar at the Atlantic Institute in Oxford to discuss an aspect of the economy that is inextricably linked to all of these issues, and yet all-too-often overlooked: care.
This transnational conversation began in November 2018, during a Cuba Platform convening in Havana. As participants shared stories and research about equity and equality from the United Kingdom, Kenya, Cuba and other countries, it became clear that even in these radically different contexts, we share common challenges around gendered economies and care.
Our focus during this January reunion of Beverley Skeggs (International Inequalities Institute, UK), Saida Ali (Senior Atlantic Fellow, Kenya), and Daybel Pañellas (University of Havana, Cuba) was to discuss challenges to, as well as opportunities for, creating more caring societies.
Cuba Platform director Sarah Stephens opened the panel by introducing care as “an issue that connects us all… regardless of gender, race, or political persuasion,” and inviting panelists to share their personal experiences with care.
Bev described the contemporary crisis in care – from both a British and global perspective – and introduced alarming figures on the monetary value of unpaid care work and exploitation of paid caregivers from a new Oxfam Report. As she explained “care work is underpinning every single global economy… and yet, nobody ever pays attention to the significance of all of this unpaid labor.”
When asked about their experiences visiting Cuba, Bev reflected on a sense of “community solidarity” in neighborhoods she visited and Saida shared that it was fascinating to experience a place where “someone has actually taken the time to think about [the infrastructure for care]... the mechanisms, the institutions, and the human resources.”
As she explained of her country, Kenya, there is an absence of infrastructure in place to care for the elderly, and the burden – like the burden of childcare and domestic labor, in general – is left to individual women.
For her part, Daybel reflected on the dream of the Cuban revolution to create a governmental framework to support care and the many complex challenges associated with implementing that dream. She remembered being taught from her earliest days in preschool to care. However, she cautioned others not to “feel that Cuba is a paradise,” and stressed the importance of continuing to work toward greater interdependence and recognition of our connections with, dependence on, and responsibilities to each other at both personal and professional levels.
At the conclusion of the panel Senior Atlantic Fellow in Social and Economic Equity Kripa Basnyat shared experiences of care workers from Nepal that greater emphasized the global dimensions of the care crisis.
Panelists called for:
changing the discrepancy of income between the super wealthy (often people – mostly men –who are not providing care) and caregivers (often under-resourced and mostly women);
transforming the way we relate to each other;
broadening the public recognition of “care” as an issue;
changing assumptions about who is responsible for care;
caring for caregivers;
recognizing connections between care and ecology; and
teaching values of care and interdependence to children.
As Sarah concluded: “It is so important to make this issue visible, to name it, to define our own terms about it, and to work together to recognize that being interdependent is not weak; it is essential to building a better world.”
The seminar on “Economies of Care: A Conversation about Cuba, Equity, and the Future,” was conducted with a live and remote audience. The following comments were shared by the remote audience. What are your experiences or analyses of the care crisis or possible pathways toward creating more caring societies? Watch the recording of the seminar, produced by our partners at the Atlantic Institute, and share your comments and questions below!
Thanks to all the speakers with such rich input and thanks to the organizers. I hope discussion will move forwards forming some sort of solidarity. In South Africa's health system, we have tens of thousands of women who work as Community Health Care Workers. They are regarded as the cornerstone or foundation of our Primary Health Care as they play a crucial role at the community level. They do door to door visiting, checking on the sick, pregnant women, elderly etc. Unfortunately, there is currently no standardised training or employment of community care workers. Thousands of community care workers are working in vulnerable communities, helping address the need caused by South Africa's burden of disease and the failure of our ailing health system. Many work as volunteers, others for a stipend from NGOs, a few through health departments. Where wages are paid, they range from R800-R2000 per month. Payment is often erratic and depends on the current budget of the employing organization, and most CCWs are employed through temporary annual contracts, which may or may not be renewed. Some even contract diseases like TB due to lack of immunization, some get dog and snake bites as they move from door to door. - Tinashe Njanji
Great conversation! Saida, from your research, what does the future of care in Africa look like? Seeing the impact of HIV/Aids in the 80s and 90s leaving the elderly grandmothers needing care themselves becoming the care givers. How do we shift the care narrative in a culture that underpays women for domestic work? – Roseline Orwa
At the beginning of this session, the exercise allowed us to acknowledge that we are united and all have an experience of care. I was sad to hear Bev's experience of her mother. Another factor to us all is death. All of us will die and an increasing number of us will die from comorbidities and progressive diseases and opposed to sudden death, and we will experience loss with bereavement needs. I think related to care is the topic of Palliative and End of Life Care - from policy, health and economics system and personally. I was interested in how the panel think we can learn from each society and move to a whole system approach to palliative and end of life care and do you think there is a gender influence? – Corrina Grimes
Great discussion. I have a question. Agree that care does support the economy (and rich men), but it is also an economic system in its own right. There is increasing automation within those systems (eg carers replaced by robots in Japan). Can care be automated (or parts of it) and, if so, what are the panelists' thoughts on consequences for women (could it be positive through releasing from care obligations and freeing for paid labour, or negative?) and social reproduction. - Corinne May-Chahal
How can we better communicate worldwide the caring mindset that characterises Cuban society, without it being rejected as 'Communist propaganda'? – Bruno Chevolet