From Recognition to Reward: Competency Certification and Women Caregivers’ Trajectories in Early Childhood Programs in Latin America. Multi-Country Study Final Report. (2025) GRADE; FARO.

Competency certification programs constitute an alternative pathway for advancing the recognition and professionalization of many occupations. In the care sector, certification has been promoted as a concrete strategy for advancing recognition and reward, by making care work more visible and by strengthening the competencies of those who perform it.

Despite the relevance of these initiatives for a predominantly female and often vulnerable workforce, there is still limited evidence on the extent to which competency certification processes effectively enhance care practices and, in particular, whether they contribute to improving caregivers’ working conditions and reducing gender gaps in the labor market. This study seeks to help fill that knowledge gap by examining how certification processes operate in different institutional contexts and how they are experienced by caregivers.