Good practice

Système national intégré de soins de l'Uruguay

Uruguay · Montevideo · See the Uruguay profile

La loi 19.353 (2015) de l'Uruguay a créé le premier système national de soins d'Amérique latine, professionnalisant le travail de soin et élargissant l'accès aux crèches et aux soins aux personnes âgées pour redistribuer la charge du soin non rémunéré qui pèse surtout sur les femmes.

23.8 %

Travail de soin non rémunéré en part du PIB (2022)

94.9 %

Travailleurs de soin rémunérés enregistrés qui sont des femmes

Système national intégré de soins de l'Uruguay

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Secretaría Nacional de Cuidados, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social (MIDES), Uruguay
Period: 2015–present
Keywords: care economy, unpaid work, childcare, long-term care, social policy

Context

La loi 19.353 de l'Uruguay (2015) a créé le Sistema Nacional Integrado de Cuidados (SNIC), le premier système national de soins d'Amérique latine, élargissant les services de garde d'enfants subventionnés, la téléassistance à domicile pour les personnes âgées, et les services d'assistance personnelle aux personnes handicapées, tout en formalisant le travail de soin comme profession réglementée.

Results

L'enquête nationale sur l'utilisation du temps de 2022 en Uruguay a révélé que le travail de soin non rémunéré équivalait à 23,8 % du PIB, les femmes y contribuant à hauteur de 16,0 points de pourcentage contre 7,8 pour les hommes ; dans le secteur des soins rémunérés qui en résulte, 94,9 % des travailleurs enregistrés sont des femmes.

Conclusions

Des recherches indépendantes sur les centres de la petite enfance SIEMPRE ont montré qu'ils augmentent la disponibilité des femmes pour un travail rémunéré et une formation, mais qu'ils ne parviennent pas, à eux seuls, à une redistribution significative des tâches de soin au sein des foyers, ni ne comprennent d'outils spécifiques pour promouvoir la coresponsabilité des pères.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-05
Secretaría Nacional de Cuidados, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social (MIDES), Uruguay — accessed 2026-07-05
ILO — How a new law in Uruguay boosted care services while breaking gender stereotypes — accessed 2026-07-05
Align Platform — Transforming gender norms through Uruguay's National Integrated Care System — accessed 2026-07-05
CEPAL — Sistema Nacional Integrado de Cuidados (SNIC) Uruguay, repository of policies — accessed 2026-07-05

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 85/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 22% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

A national legal and institutional model (law + secretariat + service network) that other Latin American countries (e.g. Colombia's Care Blocks) have already drawn on, though replication requires sustained fiscal commitment.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Independent time-use data shows the gendered care gap (women 16.0% vs men 7.8% of GDP in unpaid work) that the policy targets, but researchers found no measured household-level redistribution yet.

Effectiveness1/1

The system has professionalised and expanded care services over a decade, evidenced by a formal registered care workforce and INE time-use tracking, though co-responsibility goals remain unmet.

Efficiency1/1

Built on existing social-security (BPS) and ministry (MIDES) infrastructure rather than a new bureaucracy, per ILO reporting on service delivery.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Tracked through Uruguay's official 2022 Time Use Survey (INE) and independent academic evaluation of SIEMPRE centres (Align Platform), both cited with concrete figures.

Sustainability1/1

In continuous operation since 2015 with a new 2026-2030 National Care Plan formally adopted, indicating institutional continuity across governments.

Achievement / evidence1/1

94.9% of the formal paid care workforce being women, and 23.8%-of-GDP unpaid care work quantified, are concrete, sourced achievements in visibility and measurement.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding0/1

Evaluators explicitly found the flagship childcare centres lack tools or training to shift care responsibilities toward men, so mainstreaming of co-responsibility is still weak in practice.

Curator validation1/1

Figures cross-checked against the ILO's country case study and the Align Platform peer-reviewed-adjacent policy report, both independently corroborating the INE 2022 Time Use Survey figures.

Cite this

Evidoria. Système national intégré de soins de l'Uruguay. Persistent ID: ec85d2da-9409-48a9-9425-9221ffbcebf2.

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