Recent research (for instance, by Oxfam, IPD/GSJ, and HRW) analyzing IMF programs show that, far from “mitigating” austerity measures, IMF social spending floors, fail to address the systemic negative impacts of their policy conditionalities, thus exacerbating inequalities. As an alternative approach, the panel will explore how the World Bank and IMF could conceive their interventions not just as technical safety nets for the poor, but as an effort to support human rights within a new eco-social contract.
On October 2, more than 330 civil society organizations and academics from across the world sent an open letter calling to IMF and World Bank Directors and governments to end austerity.
Moderator: Shahir Ishar, Senior Social Protection Specialist, Inclusive Social Security Policy Forum
Panelist 1: Sarah Saadoun, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch
Panelist 2: Isabel Ortiz, Director, Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue
Panelist 3: Allana Kembabazi, Program Manager, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)
Panelist 4: Paolo Mauro , IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF
Co-sponsors: The End Austerity Campaign and the Campaign for the Right to Social Security, Act Church of Sweden, Actionaid International, AZC, Amnesty International, Campaign for the Right to Social Security, Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Financial transparency coalition (FTC), Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), Global Social Justice (GSJ), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Inclusive Social Security Policy Forum, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Kvinna Till Kvinna Foundation, OXFAM, the Bretton Woods Project, WIEGO.