Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2026 ; Geneva — The International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the World Bank Group and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO), is convening the South-4-Care Learning Hub: Advancing Decent Work in the Care Economy in South Asia in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 21 to 24 April 2026.
The four-day event brings together government representatives, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and development partners from across South Asia to strengthen care systems through regional cooperation and to translate global commitments on care into concrete national action.
The Colombo Learning Hub is the South Asia edition of the broader South-4-Care initiative, which was launched in Doha in September 2025 to promote decent work in the care economy, particularly for women, across the Global South. The initiative fosters mutual learning, capacity-building and policy exchange, enabling countries adapt successful approaches to their own national contexts.
At the opening of the event, participants highlighted the urgent need to address the persistent undervaluation of care work, improve working conditions for care workers, and expand access to quality care services. These efforts are essential not only for advancing decent work, but also for increasing women’s labour force participation and building more inclusive and resilient economies.
A key contribution to the Learning Hub came from Anita Amorim, Head of the ILO South-South and Triangular Cooperation unit, who emphasized the importance of South-South and Triangular Cooperation as a practical pathway for advancing care policies. In her intervention, she underlined that cooperation among countries of the Global South allows partners to exchange solutions rooted in similar social, economic and institutional realities, making good practices more adaptable and more likely to succeed in implementation.
She noted that South-South and Triangular Cooperation helps move beyond dialogue by supporting policy design, institutional capacity-building, pilot initiatives and scaling up through partnerships. She also stressed that the care economy is central to social justice, sustainable development and the realization of decent work.
During the session “From policy to action,” delegates from India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka shared good practices and concrete experiences in advancing care systems and strengthening decent work in the care economy. Their exchanges illustrated how countries in the region are addressing common challenges, including care workforce formalization, skills development, service delivery, and the design of policy frameworks that better recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work while rewarding and representing paid care workers.
The Learning Hub builds on the momentum of the ILO Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy adopted in 2024, which recognizes care as essential labour market infrastructure and a cornerstone of inclusive development. It also reflects the South-4-Care platform’s blended approach, combining an online knowledge hub with in-person learning and capacity-building workshops.
By convening policymakers and social partners in Colombo, the South-4-Care Learning Hub marks an important step in strengthening regional collaboration in South Asia and supporting countries in turning care commitments into actionable national roadmaps.
