Members and Partners of GATJ Participate in the Civil Society Policy Forum

This week (11-14 April), members and partners of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) are participating in the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF), taking place during the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings. With a hybrid format, the forum brings together representatives of civil society organisations to dialogue and exchange on global economy issues and international development.

“The convening of civil society is imperative, as it is an opportunity to connect struggles and to strategize for the changes we need in the global economic system so that it actually works for people and the planet,” said Riska Koopman, policy advocacy and campaigns coordinator at GATJ.

She continued: “While the negative impacts of the WB/IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programmes can still be felt today in many countries across the globe, studies show that 85% of the world population will face austerity cuts this year, which only leads to the reduction of resources to fund public services, and the increase of unsustainable debts, affecting the most vulnerable. As Ministers of Finance are gathering at the WB/IMF Spring Meetings, we stand in solidarity with our members and partners calling for the end of austerity, and pushing for tax justice as an alternative for a rights-based economy.”

Check out some of the sessions being organised by GATJ’s members and partners:

12 April – 9 am to 10:30 am EST
Achieving Debt Crisis Resolution That Delivers Today and in the Future

Rising debt burdens in low- and middle-income countries constrain their response to urgent people’s needs in an adverse and uncertain context. This unfolding debt crisis poses risks to all regions in the global south and ultimately constitutes a risk to global economic and financial stability. We will hear from different regional realities how the current instruments to deal with debt resolution are insufficient and unfit to address the current and future debt challenges. Proposals to help countries avoid the debt trap, dealing with overlapping crises and boosting an equitable recovery will also be discussed.

Panel:

Patricia Miranda – Red Latinoamericana por Justicia Económica y Social (Latindadd)
Jason Braganza – African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD)
Mae Buenaventura – Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
Maia Colodenco – former head of the International Affairs Unit, Argentina’s Ministry of Economy
Mark Flanagan – IMF

Location: HQ2-03B-768B Lecture Room
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

12 April – 11:30 to 1 pm EST
The role of SDRs in the MENA region in times of debt and austerity

This session aims at understanding the technicalities of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and discussing the role that can play in just development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The session will also address issues related to the potential of debt-free rechanneling of SDR and how that can contribute to structural reform of the economy in MENA. Speakers will also echo the main governance and transparency issues of SDRs within the region and highlight the impact of the debt crisis in MENA.

Panel:

Imene Cherif – Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) MENA
Andres Arauz – Center for Economic and Policy Research
Ahmad Awad – Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies
Omar Ghannam – Social Justice Platform
Karim Trabelsi – Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT)
Nathan Porter – IMF

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768B meeting room (Check here for most updated info)
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

12 April – 11 am to 12:30 pm EST
Remedy for those who need it—Communities respond to IFC proposed remedial framework

A core commitment guiding Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) work is ensuring that their investments “do no harm” to people or the environment. An essential corollary of this principle is that when MDBs’ investments result in harm, MDBs must ensure that remedy is provided. So far, MDBs have not provided remedy to many impacted communities, resulting in a well-known and accepted “remedy gap.” IFC has released its draft Approach to Remedial Action to address this remedy gap. During this session, communities and advocates will respond to IFC’s proposed remedy plan, revealing what a community-led and rights-based remedy framework should look like.

Panel:

Sarah Dorman – CIEL
Robi Chacha Mosenda – Policy Associate, Accountability Counsel
Fernanda Hopenhaym – UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Aaron Pedrosa – Philippines Movement for Climate Justice
Piotr Mazurkiewicz – IFC

Location: World Bank I building – 2-250 (Check here for most updated info).
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

12 April – 2:30 pm to 4 pm EST
IMF’s strategy on social spending facing austerity—New direction or bandaid?

Civil society welcomed the IMF’s new policy on social spending in 2019. However, there is concern that spending on social protection, health and education is still not given sufficient priority in government budgets. Indeed, there is fear that conditionality in IMF country programs will continue to negatively impact essential social spending. Join the discussion on how should the IMF and other international agencies, labour movements and CSOs each work to enhance and protect national social spending programs; and how might international cooperation be strengthened to assure more adequate, efficient, universal and sustainably financed social protection and social services in all countries.

Panel:

Alex Campbell – International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Rodrigo Cerda – IMF
Shahrashoub Razavi – International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Alexander Kentikelenis – Oxfam International
Ahilan Kadirgamar – University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768B meeting room (Check here for most updated info)
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

13 April – 10 am to 12:30 pm EST
How governments can respond to the cost-of-living crisis – and why they must

Panel 1: Cost of Living Protests – Why Governments Must Respond

Cathy Feingold – ITUC
Michael Bröning – FES New York
Naomi Hossain – American University
William Spriggs – AFL-CIO
Abdel Rahmen El Lahga – University of Tunis

Panel 2: How can governments respond to the cost-of-living crisis?

Isabel Ortiz – Initiative for Policy Dialogue
Shari Spiegel – UN-DESA
Shahra Razavi – ILO
Rodrigo Cerda – IMF
Karim Trabelsi – UGTT
Alex Campbell – ITUC

Location: AFL-CIO Headquarters (Solidarity Room), 815 Black Lives Matter Plz NW Washington.
Register here. Facebook livestream link http://bit.ly/439y5SW

13 April – 2 pm to 3:30 pm EST
Making a real difference? Lessons from the financing of health and education for the WB Evolution Roadmap

The World Bank Group has proposed its Evolution Roadmap, and the focus includes a need for greater financing. Drawing from evidence on the impact of different financing approaches on the provision of public services (health and education), this session will challenge us to avoid past mistakes and to think beyond the numbers to address the quality and impacts of financing.

Panel:

Lene Lind – WB (TBC)
Marialisa Motta – WB
Anjela Taneja – Oxfam International
Daniela Gabor – UWE Bristol
Allana Kembabazi – Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)

Location: World Bank I building room 2-220 (Check here for most updated info)
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

14 April – 08:30 am – 10 am EST
Financing just energy transitions: The importance of ensuring civic space in addressing the climate crisis

Civil society plays a critical role in ensuring that energy transition plans are just and effective in addressing the climate crisis, yet this role is undermined by shrinking civic space. This session will explore trends and cases of threats to climate leaders and offer recommendations on how development partners can ensure civic space and safeguard civil society voices.

Panel:

David Hunter, American University Washington College of Law
Bruce Shoemaker, Researcher and Author
Lidy Nacpil – APMDD
TrendAsia Indonesia representative (TBC)
Josh Klemm – International Rivers
World Bank (TBC)

Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

14 April – 10:30 am to 2:30 pm ET
Jubilee USA Vigil and Press Conference: Protecting Lives, Livelihoods and Planet

10:30 am – 2 pm ET: Vigil
2 pm – 2:30 pm ET: Press Conference

Bishop Charles Kasonde – Association of Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA)
Rev. Charles Chilufya, Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM)
Patricia Miranda – Latindadd
Athena Peralta – World Council of Churches
Eric LeCompte – Jubilee USA Network

Full schedule: https://www.jubileeusa.org/spring_meetings_jubilee_vigil_pressconference

Location: Community Park 1824-1884 H St NW, Washington, DC 20006
Register by clicking here.

14 April – 12 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Uses and Impacts of SDRs in Developing Countries: Advancing Climate Action and the 2030 Agenda

The IMF’s 2021 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocation provided swift, indispensable crisis relief for developing countries around the world, without harmful conditions or additional debt, and at zero cost to any IMF member country. But while this issuance proved critical, the global economic situation remains dire. In addition to the continued fallout of the pandemic, developing countries face international economic shocks from the war in Ukraine, a likely impending global recession, and the devastating impacts of a climate crisis for which they bear little responsibility. This panel will explore the impacts and uses of the 2021 issuance, and the potential role of a new issuance in enabling countries to weather the continued crisis, take climate action, and realize the 2030 Development Agenda.

Alex Main – Center for Economic and Policy Research
Patricia Miranda – Latindadd
Richard Kozul-Wright – UNCTAD
Avinash Persaud – CARICOM Commission on the Economy
Lara Merling – Boston University Global Development Policy Center
Jason Braganza – AFRODAD

Location: Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

14 April – 12 pm to 1:30 pm EST
Voices of the Global South: Taxation and polycrisis

The high-level panel Voices of the Global South: Taxation and polycrisis will present the latest tax developments in Colombia and Brazil, while showcasing the leadership of India in convening a space for the Global South through the G20 presidency as well as the leadership of Colombia by strengthening coordination within the region and within Global South countries. It will also discuss how the IMF can play a decisive role in supporting progressive tax initiatives and an ambitious global tax reform, as alternatives to austerity.

Panel:

Jose Antonio Ocampo, Minister of Finance, Colombia
Fernando Haddad, Minister of Finance, Brazil
Jayati Gosh, ICRICT commissioner
Vitor Gaspar, head of IMF Fiscal Affairs Department (TBC)
TBD, Ministry of Finance, Costa Rica

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768B
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

14 April – 2:15 pm EST
Time to get macro? Gendered effects of World Bank macroeconomic policy amidst IFI reform

Amidst growing calls for reform of the international financial architecture, and while the World Bank shapes its next ‘Gender Strategy Update’, civil society groups are reigniting calls for the Bank to look inwards and assess the gendered effects of its wider macroeconomic policy. Topics such as privatisation, conditionalities attached to Development Policy Finance loans, austerity, and the still ‘gender blind’ Environmental and Social Framework will be explored. Panellists will examine the Bank’s contribution to wider structural harms against women, girls and sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), and yield an opportunity for WB staff to reflect on alternative proposals offered by feminist economists and civil society alike.

Panel:

Elaine Zuckerman – Gender Action
Sonia Phalatse – FEMNET

Location: World Bank I building – 2-220 (Check here for most updated info)
Must be registered to join in person. No registration is needed to access the livestream, available at: www.imf.org/cso

14 April – 2:30 pm to 4 pm EST
How can the global south achieve climate justice under debt burden and austerity?

Speakers:

Jax Bongon – IBON International
Nadia Hmaity – ActionAid Ghana
Ivana Vasić-Lalović – Center for Economic and Policy Research
Mark Flanegan – IMF
Shereen Talaat – Arab Watch Coalition

Location: IMF HQ2-03B-768B. To join virtually, please use this Zoom link.

Photo credit: World Bank Group / International Monetary Fund