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Social Investment Policies in Chile and Latin America: Towards Equal Opportunities for Women and Children?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2010

SILKE STAAB
SILKE STAAB*
Affiliation:
Research Analyst, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Palais des Nations, Bureau D-217, 1210 Geneva, Switzerland email: staab@unrisd.org
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Abstract

Social investment ideas are increasingly permeating social and care policy-making in Latin America. In this article, I analyse a variety of instruments which have been used to ‘invest in children’ across a range of Latin American countries to then zoom in on Chile, where early childhood education and care have attained a prominent place on the welfare agenda in recent years. This policy interest materialised in ‘Chile Grows With You’, an integrated child development strategy whose title resonates strongly with the global narrative on social investment. Engaging with the programme's aim of creating ‘equal opportunities from the cradle’, I discuss the transformative potential and the limitations of childcare service expansion in a highly unequal context.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 607 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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