New Delhi [India], June 27: As politicians and policymakers gather in Seville, Spain, for the Financing for Development Conference 4 of the UN, that will determine whether the global economic system enriches a select few or works for everyone — a broad range of organisations from every corner of the world have signed a statement demanding urgent, transformative reforms.
More than 1100 civil society organisations from 114 countries have endorsed the Economic Justice statement, entitled We Stand with Billions, Not Billionaires: Cancel the Debt, Change the System, which denounces the concentration of wealth and power in a few super-rich individuals, corporations and governments.
Among the statement’s signatories are international non-profit organisations such as Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), ActionAid International, Action for Sustainable Development, Amnesty International, Caritas Internationalis, Greenpeace and Oxfam International. Hundreds of national and community organisations, mostly from the Global South including many from India, have also endorsed the call for economic justice.
Key demands include debt cancellation, taxing the super-rich and big corporations, increased spending and investment on public services and social protection, and building a fair, democratic and transparent financial system under the United Nations.
“In a world gripped by inequality and injustice, we must unite across borders to demand that financial systems serve people and planet – not just profit,” says Kumi Naidoo, the former International Executive Director of Greenpeace International and Secretary General of Amnesty International and current president of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. “I stand in solidarity with this mobilisation and urge governments to put equity, accountability, and dignity at the centre for financing for development.” The forum where global leaders have an opportunity to unlock the resources and make the transformative changes needed to address this crisis is the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), which starts on June 30th in Seville. Heads of states, as well as representatives from multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector, will discuss reforms to the international financial architecture and address financing for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The meetings are taking place against the backdrop of a catastrophic debt crisis that is impacting nearly one in three countries — the biggest such crisis in a generation. Instead of funding healthcare and schools, many countries in the Global South are forced to pay billions to wealthy creditors, at crushing interest rates, while institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose brutal austerity. The cuts of public services result in dramatic consequences for people, less access to health, water, education, transport or social protection. Women and girls bear the heaviest burden, as they perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work.
In India, the inequality level is rising despite it being declared as the fourth largest economy in the World.
“Inequality is the outcome of a flawed economic design that sucks income from the bottom to the top. In the name of ‘Trickle Down’ it has helped the rich to amass wealth and drive the poor against the wall. Its time to rethink economics that strengthens the bottom” opines Dr Devinder Sharma, Food policy analyst based in India.
“The richest 1% pollute more than the poorest 66%, yet vulnerable communities bear the devastation, because the financial system is rigged,” says Patricia Miranda, the global advocacy director of the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (LATINDADD).
Miranda highlights that rich nations, including members of the European Union, have been blocking these solutions during the FfD4 negotiations.
“We have an opportunity to halt the debt crisis and prevent it from occurring again. Economic Justice is the key to ending poverty, reducing inequalities and solving the climate crisis,” adds GCAP co-chair Arjun Bhattarai, based in Nepal.
Notes for editors: 1 The full statement and list of signatories is available here: https://economicjustice.global. Economic Justice Mobilisation is a Global South-led movement comprised of civil society networks, social movements, trade unions, activists and academics.
2 Kumi Naidoo is a renowned international activist from South Africa. https://www.kuminaidoo.net 3 https://financing.desa.un.org/about-ffd4 (Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PNN and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR PWR