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Placing care at the centre of legislative reform in the Caribbean

April 17, 2026 | Activity

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Care sustains households, communities, and economies across the Caribbean, yet much of that work remains unevenly distributed, insufficiently valued, and only partially reflected in public policy. Gaps in childcare, eldercare, support for persons with disabilities, parental leave, and social protection continue to shape who can participate fully in economic and public life, with women still assuming a disproportionate share of unpaid care responsibilities. With these pressures increasingly visible across the region, parliamentarians and policy actors gathered in St. George’s, Grenada, to examine how legislative action can help reposition care not as a private burden, but as a shared social responsibility and a strategic area of public investment.

Convened by ParlAmericas, UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean, and the Parliament of Grenada, the two-day workshop, held on 16 and 17 April 2026, brought together more than 70 participants from 15 Caribbean countries and territories, including parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, representatives of national gender machineries, specialists, and civil society actors, to examine how legislation, policy, and financing can support subsidised care systems through the 5R framework: recognizing, reducing, redistributing, rewarding, and representing care work.

Opening remarks by Alisha Todd, Director General of ParlAmericas; Isiuwa Iyahen, Head of Office a.i. of UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean; and The Honourable Dr. Dessima Williams, President of the Senate of Grenada and member of the ParlAmericas Council, positioned care as both an economic and social policy priority, stressing that work essential to sustaining households and communities remains insufficiently reflected in legislation, public budgets, and social protection systems. In special opening remarks, The Honourable Dennis Cornwall, Minister for Finance of Grenada, reinforced the relevance of advancing policy responses that better reflect how care shapes social wellbeing and economic participation. Together, these opening interventions pointed to a common regional challenge: how to strengthen care systems at a time when demographic change, labour market pressures, and fiscal constraints are reshaping demand across Caribbean societies.

A central thread throughout the discussions was the need to move beyond seeing care only through the lens of social assistance and instead recognize it as part of the economic infrastructure that sustains societies. Regional evidence presented during the meeting highlighted how unpaid care work continues to limit women’s access to employment and income, while weak service provision generates broader economic costs that often remain invisible in public budgeting. Participants examined how stronger legislative frameworks on maternity, paternity, and parental leave, workplace protections, and social services can help address these structural imbalances while broadening access to rights across the life cycle.

The workshop also drew attention to practical experiences already emerging in the region. Presentations by national delegations gave the workshop a distinctly regional dimension, bringing together ministers, presiding officers, parliamentarians, and senior officials responsible for social development, gender affairs, and family policy. Across different national contexts, the exchange revealed not only a common set of challenges, but also growing political recognition that care can no longer remain peripheral to legislative agendas and public policy priorities, as countries work to address legal gaps, improve institutional coordination, and move from isolated measures toward more coherent care systems.

Financing emerged as one of the workshop’s central policy questions, as participants examined how childcare, eldercare, and disability-related services can be strengthened within constrained fiscal environments and how parliamentary scrutiny of public expenditure becomes essential when care is approached as social infrastructure rather than discretionary spending. Discussions also emphasized that financing choices often determine whether care policies remain fragmented or evolve into systems capable of responding more consistently across the life cycle.

Attention also turned to implementation: how services reach households, how social protection systems interact with care needs, and where institutional bottlenecks continue to limit access. Participants examined the importance of data, referral systems, service quality standards, and accountability mechanisms, especially for populations facing overlapping inequalities linked to geography, income, disability, and gender.

The joint statement adopted at the workshop gave institutional expression to a shared regional commitment to strengthening care systems through coordinated parliamentary action, setting out priority areas for continued work across the Caribbean, including improving disaggregated data collection on paid and unpaid care work, strengthening care and social protection legislation, expanding equitable access to quality services, promoting sustainable financing, and advancing public awareness that care is both a human right and a shared social responsibility.

In a forward-looking closing message, The Honourable Leo Cato, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Grenada, stressed that the significance of the workshop would be measured by what follows: whether the ideas advanced in St. George’s are translated into legislative initiatives, financing decisions, and oversight that strengthen care systems across the region.

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This meeting was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada.