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Around the world, the burden of caregiving continues to hinder women’s economic participation. In Mexico City, the Government has been working towards easing this burden by creating a more integrated care system. The aim is to reduce the disproportionate distribution of care work carried out by women and girls, and offer improved care services to children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. However, determining where to allocate resources and position these new services to reach the most people—particularly those most in need—remains a challenge.
Mexico City initially used a combination of geospatial data, administrative and crowdsourced data to identify optimal locations for early childhood education centres. To refine this approach, the Government of Mexico City partnered with the Ministry for Women, German development agency GIZ and healthtech company ProsperIA to identify the ideal location for cluster care services. ‘Cluster care’ consolidates caregiving facilities into centralized hubs for greater efficiency. The Ministry for Women had previously used ProsperIA’s IncluIA, which generates detailed maps of urban poverty. The new approach was for the Ministry for Women to increase the data fed into the platform and this delivered important new insights. The Ministry was able to see which areas in the city had a ‘complete’ care cluster, which only had essential infrastructure (‘minimum cluster’) and which areas provided basic services but were still under-resourced (‘potential cluster’). The platform also analysed which services and infrastructure should be prioritized in each area. The results enabled policy within the Government of Mexico City to make targeted decisions to enhance public service delivery.
The data-orientated approach contributes to efforts by Mexico City’s Ministry for Women to create policies that recognize, redistribute and reduce care work. Benefits also overlap into other Government functions. IncluIA can be accessed by all Mexico City policymakers meaning that departments with a focus on child welfare, education, poverty reduction, economic inclusion, reducing hunger and other priority topics can also make use of the data.
This scalable approach shows how data can drive progress on multiple Sustainable Development Goals and can be adapted for national implementation. While the primary focus was on SDG 5: Gender equality, the use case also addresses SDG 10: Reduced inequalities, by enabling policymakers to pinpoint where resources can be allocated to communities in greatest need. The resulting map of cluster care locations, which draws on cutting-edge geospatial technology, existing administrative data and inexpensively crowdsourced data, is both innovative and cost-effective. Integrating this data into other Government functions will extend its benefit to more citizens in Mexico City.
Mexico City’s Constitution was a landmark document that came into effect in 2017 and guaranteed residents a set of human, economic, political and social rights. The Constitution covers many topics such as care, financial inclusion and nutrition and education. This aspirational document serves as a guiding compass and reflects the city’s commitment to treating its citizens with dignity and upholding collective rights. However, although Mexico City is striving to reduce inequalities, more needs to be done. The Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to life-sustaining care; this places a responsibility on the Government to ensure the necessary conditions for people to exercise this right. To turn this principle into action, the Government is using the care cluster ('circuitos de cuidado') framework to evaluate existing care-related services and infrastructure. The following services were identified as key components of a care cluster:
In addition to these services, other criteria are taken into consideration: proximity to services (within a 1600-metre radius) and timetabling—particularly whether services are available outside of ordinary work hours. Another requirement is that services must be coordinated so that caregivers can conveniently access multiple forms of support.
The care map for this project is hosted on IncluIA, a geospatial intelligence platform for policymaking. This map was developed for Mexico City’s Ministry for Women through consultations with ProsperIA and GIZ, with the aim of addressing Mexico City’s care infrastructure. The platform integrates a wide range of data sources, including administrative data such as the National Statistical Directory of Economic Units (DENUE), the Population and Housing Census 2020, the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditures (ENIGH) 2020, and the Characteristics of the Urban Environment 2020. Additionally, the platform can incorporate satellite imagery to create micro-territorial units within a map of the city. This generates more precise recommendations and analysis if required.
The platform works by analysing data and generating recommendations on priority areas for infrastructure. It captures population statistics such as socioeconomic status, population density and income. Policymakers can then quickly carry out data-based analyses and allocate resources based on priority and need. The data that feeds the platform becomes a primary enabler for policymakers to address inequalities in Mexico City.
After establishing the definition for 'complete' and 'minimum' cluster care services, a third category was established—'potential minimum' cluster care services. These are areas which have three of the four components required to be considered a minimum cluster and are considered high priority areas for meeting the minimum standard.
The platform leveraged spatial intelligence to analyse the whole of Mexico City and identify that the city has six consolidated cluster care services, 117 minimum clusters, and 89 potential minimum clusters. The criteria for defining what qualifies as a minimum care cluster was developed by experts from various public offices within the city's Government, all of whom are members of the Inter-institutional Commission of the Mexico City Care for Well-Being Care System.
he 89 potential minimum cluster care services are dotted across Mexico City, with the greatest clustering in Tláhuac, Xochimilco, and Tlalpan, as well as in the periphery areas of Coyoacán, Gustavo A. Madero and Venustiano Carranza. However, needs were highly variable among the areas. Expanding the 89 potential clusters to become minimum clusters requires 21 community centres, 16 early childhood education centres, and 14 elderly care services. However, the most-needed and least-supplied infrastructure to ensure a complete care cluster is full-time schools, and 38 of these are needed.
Placement of primary schools: The map shows 38 points in the city where zones of potential clusters could be elevated to 'minimum' care cluster status with the addition of a full-time primary school. IncluIA can generate recommendations based on the number of potential people that would be served, combined with demographic data to help define need. The system made five high priority recommendations for new primary schools, four based in Tlalpan and Xochimilco, and one in Álvaro Obergón. If implemented, the completion of the minimum cluster care services in these locations would benefit approximately 200,000 people.
Policymakers in Mexico City now have an incredibly powerful tool to rapidly assess community needs and to allocate resources to improve access to care. The platform empowers the Ministry for Women to guide policymakers on data use and to collaborate across Government to address infrastructure needs within the city. The platform bridges data gaps by combining data resources and providing an understanding of the challenges women face. Policymakers can address these concerns directly, using data as evidence for better decision-making.
As the platform scales beyond its initial scope, it can be continuously updated with new data as it becomes available. Updated administrative data or new crowdsourced data will empower policymakers to adapt and respond to new citizen needs. Employees in the public sector in Mexico City are currently being trained on how to use the platform and handle the data in their daily work. As more people become aware of the platform and how it works, data will become central to governance processes in Mexico City, across all levels of decision-making.
