GCSPF E-Newsletter #11 - June 2018

The side event “Financing Universal Social Protection to promote Inclusive Development and Reduce Inequality“ was held during the Civil Society Policy Forum of World Bank/IMF Spring meetings 2018.
Read here the notes of the event and the presentations of the speakers.

The panel on social protection as a human rights imperative, held on 30 April, 2018 during the 62nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), Nouakchott, Mauritania.
The panel was the first of its kind on social security in the history of the African Commission and thus garnered a lot of interest, first for its relevance in the African context and secondly to garner support for the Commission’s draft protocol on social security. The presentations emphasised the parameters of a rights based approach to social security and how the draft protocol entrenches this. The presentations also highlighted the need for African states to move from a piece-meal, welfare approach to a human rights based, coordinated approach for social protection. Read more

There can be no doubt: social protection has been recognized as a key instrument to end poverty and to give people access to opportunities for a self-determined life. The international commitment is explicit and ambitious.
Experts call upon Financing for Development Forum to focus attention on financing social protection. See the webcast of this side event at the UN Headquarter from 23.4.2018.
Read here notes of the event.

The report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, focusing on the IMF and its impact on social protection will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday 21 June.
The side event is co-organized by Philip Alston (Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights), the International Movement ATD Fourth World, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Center for Economic and Social Rights.
The eventi will be held in Geneva on Friday 22 June, between 13:00 and 14.30.
Read here the flyer of the event

If the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to respond effectively in the years ahead to the challenges in a world in which both globalization and liberal democracy are increasingly under attack, it will need a different mindset from the modified neoliberalism that currently sets the parameters of its thinking.
This is the assessment of Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, which begins its thirty-eighth regular session on Monday (18 June).
In his report that focuses on the IMF and its impact on social protection, Mr Alston said that the IMF is the single most influential international actor not only in relation to fiscal policy but also to social protection, even if both it and its critics might prefer that this were not the case. Read more