The International Labour Organization (ILO) has announced the expansion of its ILO Care Policy Investment Simulator to new 36 countries as part of its current efforts to support investment packages in the affected countries.
Curiously, no African country benefitted from the gesture, which is very helpful to beneficiary countries in health care delivery, especially child care.
The global labour organization stated on Thursday that the Simulator was extended to 16 new countries from the Americas, 12 new countries from Europe and Central Asia and 8 new countries from the Arab States, amplifying support for global efforts to invest in the care economy.
The Simulator helps build tailor-made care policy investment packages in four areas: childcare-related leave (maternity, paternity, and parental leave), breastfeeding breaks, early childhood care and education and long-term care services. Based on 180 statistical indicators, the tool calculates investment requirements, employment benefits and the impact on gender equality of comprehensive care policy packages.
Since its initial release in March 2023, the Simulator gained popularity among governments, employers and workers, organizations, academics, UN agencies, and civil society organizations.
The ILO confirmed that as of April 2024, close to 800 people from 100 countries worldwide had registered, thereby showing that the simulator is a powerful tool for fostering investments in care policies. With the recent expansion to new countries, the Simulator is poised to further support the development of care policy across the globe.
Attributing the expansion of the Simulator to the new countries to its partnership with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the labour organization stated that new countries in the Americas region had been added, including four countries from the Caribbean, a sub-region not previously covered.
It clarified that the simulations, along with the Care at Work Regional Companion Report and the Regional Report on Convention No. 156, strengthened the ILO and ECLAC’s technical support in the region, and helped to facilitate responses to constituents’ requests as regional interest in the care economy continues to grow.
According to the statement, for ILO projects in Europe and Central Asia, specifically in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Central Asia, Simulator results are being used to bolster support provided in the region. New countries include Ukraine, Moldova and Uzbekistan, as well as Albania, a pathfinder country for the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for just Transition with a focus on the care economy.
The labour organization further maintained that in the Arab States, the Simulator’s expansion was driven by the regional conference “Investing in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in the Arab Region for a more Gender-equal World of Work” held last year in Jordan.
It disclosed that the number of Arab States included in the Simulator grew from one to nine countries, adding that the additions provides a helpful estimation for the conference, demonstrating that closing the childcare policy gap could generate almost six million jobs in 12 Middle East and North African countries by 2035.
The Simulator has also been upgraded to improve the data incorporated throughout, benefitting all 118 countries, with the adjustments detailed in ILO Care Policy Investment Simulator: Technical Note 2.0
The ILO linked the feat to its partnership with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), as the information available in the ILO Global Care Policy Portal and Investment Simulator has been used to prepare country and regional briefs, over 20 of which are now available in the ILO Care Policy E-Library.
