EUROsociAL+, through its area of social policies in IILA, supports the gradual extension of child care and development services, which is also incorporating a gender perspective in the system.
In January, EUROsociAL+’s third specialised advisory mission to the Technical Secretariat of the Child Care and Development Network (ST REDCUDI) of Costa Rica was carried out within the framework of promoting the process of the gradual extension of child care and development services, bringing the perspective of gender equality into the system.
The initiative arises from the important commitment of the Alvarado Quesada Administration regarding the consolidation of the National Network of Child Care and Development, which is specified in a proposal for strengthening based on three strategic lines: (i) the progressive universalisation of the coverage of Child Care and Development services; (ii) the increase in the quality of childcare and development services; and (iii) the reconceptualisation of the National Network for Child Care and Development.
In this context, the aim and purpose of the mission, undertaken by the Argentine consultant Fabian Repetto, was to provide the Secretariat with technical support on two levels: (i) on the one hand, at the level of review and adjustment of the legal care framework, in order to ensure alignment with the other legal-institutional change processes currently under way in the country; (ii) on the other hand, at the level of diagnostic analysis and recommendation on governance challenges and institutional capacity of ST REDCUDI (functions, human resources, sources of financing, etc.), in view of its strengthening/consolidation for the management of adequate provision of early childhood care services, with a view to universality.
Part of the mission has also been directed towards a supportive facet of the linked and complementary EUROsociAL Programme, directed at the Ministry of Human Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica, which is to do with the design and approval of the direction of the social sector and the articulation of human development and social inclusion policies in the country.
