Brazil

This project views the subject of care through the special and narrow prism of the productive inclusion of women who provide care. To reach this general objective means, first, to clearly measure the heterogeneity of the forms of care work in Brazil. Only then can we uncover the complex and varied facets of the phenomenon of inclusion and focus on it from the perspective of different women care workers.

But the project intends to go further. While we recognize the urgency of a precise diagnosis of the inequalities and difficulties that hinder the social and productive inclusion of these women, we hope to reach another objective: to propose ways to overcome the difficulties associated to their vulnerable productive inclusion, or to at least alleviate them. This requires investments in supporting the design and adoption of government policies geared toward care, as well as in creating awareness among private actors that can be attracted to a renewed agenda in the field.

A network-based initiative

In devising this project, Cebrap engaged a network of specialists affiliated to institutions spanning diverse areas of expertise located in different parts of Brazil: (i) academic institutions such as the universities of São Paulo, Campinas, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, and Rio Grande do Norte, (ii) technical institutions that produce data (such as Fundação Seade), formulate policies that impact care (like IPEA), and conduct successful initiatives to qualify care workers (like Oswaldo Cruz Foundation).

Why create a network-based initiative? This strategy permits not only examining the multiple facets of the problem, but also focusing on the specific challenges that Brazil’s marked regional diversity brings to care provision and to the productive inclusion of care workers. In this sense, the network remains open to new institutions and specialists, certain that the comparison will serve as a valuable strategic tool.

Focus areas for analysis

1.     Map the economy of care in Brazil: an assessment of surveys and indicators

2.     Paid care work and the challenges of productive inclusion

3.     Non-paid care work and the challenges of productive inclusion

4.     The networks: lessons from the strategies of providing community care

5.     Care, familyism, and government policies