Video of the Event “Building a New Eco-social Contract and Advancing Social Security in Times of Debt and Austerity”

The video of the event "Building a New Eco-social Contract and Advancing Social Security in Times of Debt and Austerity" is now online. The event took place on Friday, October 13, 2023 during the Civil Society Policy Forum of the WBG-IMF Annual Meetings 2023 held in Marrakech, Morocco.

Recent research analyzing IMF programs show that, far from “mitigating” austerity measures, IMF policies and social spending floors fail to address negative social impacts. The panel explored how the World Bank and IMF could build a human rights-based economy with better developmental outcomes.

The event was moderated by Shahir Ishak (Senior Social Protection Specialist, Inclusive Social Security Policy Forum).

And the speakers were Sarah Saadoun (Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch), Allana Kembabazi (Program Manager, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights), Isabel Ortiz (Director of the Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue) and Rodrigo Cerda (Division Chief, IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG) declined the invitation to participate in the event.

The event was organized by Act church of Sweden, ActionAid international, AWC, ANND, Amnesty International, CESR, End Austerity Campaign, FTC, Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), Global Social Justice/Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), HRW, ISSPF, ISER, ITUC, Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Oxfam International, BWP, WIEGO, ARI and MenaFem.

Further information on this event is available here. Further information about the Right to Social Security Campaing is available here.

Members of the Social Security for all Campaign participated at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings 2023 held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 9 to 15 October, 2023.

Members of the Social Security for all Campaign participated at the Reclaim our Future Conference, from 8 to 9 October 2023. The event End Austerity! Reclaim the Right to Education, Health and Social Security took place on October 8th.

This session presented the new austerity policies advised by the IMF and the World Bank, and implemented by most Ministries of Finance, from cuts to public services and social security/social protection, to privatization and labor flexibilization reforms, affecting more than 6 billion people. All the human suffering these reforms cause is unnecessary: there are alternatives that even the poorest countries can implement to achieve human rights including the right to education, health and social security.

The speakers were Isabel Ortiz (Director of the Global Social Justice Programme), Matti Kohonen (Director of the Financial Transparency Coalition), Nabil Abdo (Senior Policy Advisor, Oxfam International), Roos Saalbrink (Global Lead on Economic Justice and Public Services, ActionAid International) and Sarah Saadoun (Senior Researcher and Advocate, Poverty and Inequality, Human Rights Watch).

Members of the Social Security for all Campaign participated at the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) of the WBG-IMF Annual Meetings 2023, from 9 to 13 October 2023. The event "Building a New Eco-social Contract and Advancing Social Security in Times of Debt and Austerity" took place on Friday, October 13th. The video is here and further information is available here.

Recent research analyzing IMF programs show that, far from “mitigating” austerity measures, IMF policies and social spending floors fail to address negative social impacts. The panel explored how the World Bank and IMF could build a human rights-based economy with better developmental outcomes.

The event was moderated by Shahir Ishak (Senior Social Protection Specialist, Inclusive Social Security Policy Forum). And the speakers were Sarah Saadoun (Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch), Allana Kembabazi (Program Manager, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights), Isabel Ortiz (Director of the Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue) and Rodrigo Cerda (Division Chief, IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG) declined the invitation to participate in the event.

Members of the Social Security for all Campaign participated at the Global Counter-Summit of Social Movements, that was held from 12 to 15 October 2023. See the programme here.

Further information about the Right to Social Security Campaign is available here. Please sign on to the statement using this link here, and help us spread the word and encourage others for endorsements.

The video of the launching of the Campaign: Social Security for All – Key Pillar for a New Eco-Social Contract is now online. The event took place on Wednesday, October 4th, 2023.

The event was moderated by Farah Al Shami (Arab Reform Initiative). Global testimonies on the challenges of poverty targeting and pension privatization were presented by Allana Kembabazi (ISER, Uganda), Sarala Emmanuel (Feminist Collective for Economic Justice in Colombo, Sri Lanka), Guillermo Zuccotti (CGT, Argentina) and Manuel Riesco (CENDA Foundation, Chile). Isabel Ortiz (Global Social Justice) presented the Campaign: Social Security for All – Key Pillar for a New Eco-Social Contract.

Further information about the campaign is available here. Please sign on to the statement using this link here and the list of signatories is here.

(General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC)

(UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights)

(Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania – ELCT)

(Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

(Project Officer, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action)

(Director, the Africa Platform for Social Protection – APSP) guide you through different aspects of this new Global Fund explaining why we need the Fund and how it would work.