Can A City Be Re-Organised Around Women?

By: Luz Amparo Medina. International Consultant of Phare Global Territories

The question that the first female elected as Mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian capital, decided to address was: can a city reorganize itself around women? The answer, at the end of her four- year mandate and the first of his successor, is yes. Claudia López was elected in October 2019 thanks to the support of the Women's Advisory Council (the coordinating body in the city of grassroots women's organizations), with the commitment to establish the first care system. From the perspective of local public policy, the care system is a way of providing social services, adapting them to the needs and particularities of women. It is also a guiding principle of urban planning, as it is intended to facilitate women's access to these services.

Care systems respond to a reality that possibly is universal, but which is more pronounced in the countries of the Global South. In the absence of social security systems that guarantee quality access to health and pension services, the care of children, the elderly, and family members with disabilities falls mainly on the shoulders of women. The time poverty of women, as a result of the overload of unpaid care work, decreases their opportunities for study, professional development, and quality of life. This limits their economic autonomy and their participation in the political life of societies.

Bogotá is a city of almost 8 million inhabitants, out of which 52% are women and, of these, 1.2 million, equivalent to 30% of the total female population, live in conditions of socioeconomic vulnerability. At the time of designing the system, 20% of them reported chronic diseases, 33% lack of free time, 70% did not pursue further education after high-school, and 90% were low-income.

Bogota's care system seeks to recognize the contribution of unpaid care work to the economy, which is estimated to represent 13% of the city's GDP; redistribute care work equitably between men and women; and reduce unpaid care work. To this end, the care system articulates new or existing services to meet care demands under an approach of shared responsibility between the national government, the city government, the private sector, the community, and family members to balance the provision of care. In this way, caregivers free up time to dedicate to their self-care and well-being, finish their studies, generate income, and participate in politics.

Therefore, the services offered to caregivers consist of wellness activities such as recreation or socio-emotional and legal support, education, and income generation. Professional care services and recreational activities are offered for people who require care or support. Finally, cultural change workshops are aimed at family members, particularly men. Under the understanding that everyone can learn to care, the School of Care for Men was created where husbands and sons learn to cook, do domestic work, and comb the girls’ hair, among other things.

Although many of these services already existed in the city, the innovation of Bogotá's care system is that their provision was adapted and delivered under three principles. The first and perhaps most structural to the system is simultaneity, that is, while the caregivers participate in the activities of their choice, the people care for take part in the planned oriented services. For example, while women study or take yoga classes, they can leave the children in "Art of Taking Care of You" workshops or leave their clothes washing in public laundries.

The second is flexibility, i.e. adapting existing infrastructures and services to articulate them to the system. In this way, schools, citizen service centers, health centers, or houses of justice, among other public infrastructures, became anchors to bring services that complemented each other to respond to the logic of the care system. Service delivery schedules were also adjusted to better respond to the needs of women.

The third is proximity, to bring the system closer to the women who need it most through: i) Care Blocks with which it is sought that women do not have to walk more than 800 meters to reach the system's services; ii) Care Buses to reach dispersed populations, given that 70% of the city's territory is rural and difficult to access; and iii) Care home assistance, through which service providers, especially health services, care at home, while caregivers benefit from the services intended for them.

As of December 2024, 25 Care Blocks have been inaugurated and, according to the Land Use Plan, 45 are expected to exist by 2035. In the definition of where the Blocks are opened, a prioritization index was created that includes four variables: the demand for care (25%), the density of caregivers (25%), poverty levels (25%), and that in the participatory budgets of the locality actions for caregivers have been prioritized (25%). Bogota has an important strength in data management that allows it to be used for the application of this index.

Through the Bogota care system, as of September 2023, more than 550,000 caregivers benefited. With services aimed at children, 13,664 hours were freed up for caregivers; thanks to the laundry service, donated by a private company, 12,138 hours were freed up; 34,513 women graduated from high school, accessed digital literacy, or were certified as caregivers by the National Learning Service.  

With the aim of having institutional governance that facilitates the articulation and management of the initiative, the Intersectoral Commission for the Care System was set up, led by the Women's Secretariat, which articulates services provided by 13 sectors of the local government. The City Council also declared it as a public policy which institutionalized it and allowed it to transcend the political cycle. The scale and scope of the system reflected the political will and direct involvement of Mayor Claudia López and represents one of the main legacies of her administration, recognized with distinctions such as the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation or the Global Mayors Challenge of Bloomberg Philanthropies. It aims to inspire other cities of the world to undertake concrete steps to tackle time poverty of women and improve their contribution to society at large.