private sector accountability

Alternatives to Debt and Austerity in Latin America

Alternativas frente a la Deuda y Austeridad en América Latina | Alternatives to Debt & Austerity in Latin America

Panel:

  • Oscar Ugarteche, Coordinator of the Economic Observatory of Latin America (OBELA) from the Economic Research Institute (UNAM).
  • Isabel Ortiz, Director of Global Social Justice

Comments:

  • How do austerity policies affect workers? Jocelio Drummond, Regional Secretary of the Public Services International (PSI) for the Americas
  • How do austerity policies affect women’s rights? Verónica Serafini, Latindadd
  • How was the IMF´s return to Latin America? Mario Valencia, Latindadd

Moderator: Patricia Miranda, Latindadd

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5516215289568/WN_lCE-A_smQ_GEr946KztoZQ

Background:
Latin America is going through one of the worst social and economic crises, which drags structural failures of the economic model deepened during the pandemic.

In the face of confinement decisions, developed countries have responded with fiscal stimuli and monetary emissions, and some poor countries have managed to access temporary debt service suspensions. However, middle-income countries -that is to say, almost all countries in Latin America- face difficulties in accessing the neccesary financing to address health and economic emergencies.

Concerns in the region grow around the need to alleviate the situation of millions of people living below the poverty line, closing the deepening gender gaps, applying urgent measures in the face of job losses, preventing lack of education from becoming a structurally lagging factor and also, preventing countries from continuing to depend on the extractive economy as the only form of economic growth, among others.

The financing needs to face the crisis have led countries to borrow, increasing their external and internal debt in the midst of a critical fiscal situation, as well as to implement austerity measures. The IMF has returned to the region and there are no signs of a sustainable recovery in this new lost decade for Latin America. In this seminar we seek to address responses and solutions to the situation in Latin America, in the midst of a multiple crisis. Additionally, we seek to address alternatives leading to the recovery of the region.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@gmail.com. 

ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing

Dear ASPBAE Members and Friends,
We cordially  invite you to join the ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing which will be held on Monday, 26 April 2021, at 1:00 pm Manila time (Philippine Standard Time).
This is a key Asia Pacific event as part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) held from 26-30 April and the One Billion Voices Campaign, both coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and supported by ASPBAE. Each regional network member of GCE is holding an event on a different day of GAWE, and the Asia Pacific event by ASPBAE is the first one to start the week on Monday 26 April.
We hope you can join us in this event and encourage your colleagues to participate as well. There is no registration process required. Join the Zoom Meeting here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86001255005?pwd=M0h2ZVV3ZGY5VG51Zzl5OUZORDBlQT09
Meeting ID: 860 0125 5005; Passcode: 850131

The event will be attended by three senior government officials, one each from Timor Leste, the Philippines and Bangladesh speaking, along with a presentation from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), as well as a presentation from ASPBAE and a youth representative from NCE Nepal. There will be space at the end of the speeches and inputs for a number of questions to the speakers.

Objective:

The objective of the Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue on Education Financing is to encourage governments to mobilise national resources that can ensure inclusive education systems and programmes that prioritise the most marginalised.

Rationale:

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a huge gap between education spending, and what was actually needed to achieve SDG4. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated this gap, and has led to a curtailment of funding by donors and governments for the education of its people. More than ever, it is important for governments to step up and protect national education budgets, and even better, to increase them, especially to enable education access to rural and remote communities, people with disabilities, those that are missing out on school, unemployed youth, and those that have no access to online learning opportunities.

This online event is part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), an annual international week of campaigning for improved national education policies and increased national education budgets. The theme of GAWE this year is education financing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). GAWE is part of a year-long campaign organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) called One Billion Voices.

Rallying Call: ‘Protect Education Budgets: reach the most marginalised’

Main speakers:

  • Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chair, Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture
  • Dr. António Guterres, Vice Minister for Education, Youth and Sport, Timor-Leste
  • Mr. Md. Mahbub Hossain, Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education in Bangladesh
  • GPE presentation: recorded message from Ms Margarita Focas Licht, Chief, Effective Partnerships
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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Decreased Access to Safe Water in Asia: Challenges to Human Security

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) will organise a webinar on ‘Decreased Access to Safe Water in Asia: Challenges to Human Security’ in conjunction with the World Water Day–2021.

Scheduled to be held on 22 March 2021 from 12 PM to 2 PM (Bangkok time), the webinar will highlight the importance of access to water as a human right and its challenges to human security and will focus on the problems related to the right to safe and clean water and challenges to human security.

The panelists of the webinar will include representatives of UN agencies, NGOs working in the field of water, sanitation, and hygiene issues, as well as church and ecumenical organisations.

Those who are interested in participating in the webinar, kindly register using the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrdO6qpjwpGdTg_D6dlkhiGiUzSqPJBhnp

For more details, please refer to the Background Information note here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns-NY, please visit csvgc-ny.org.

Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Dimensions of the Virtual World

Dear colleagues,

You are warmly invited to an online dialogue on “Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Dimensions of the Virtual World” during a side event for the Commission on Social Development, hosted by the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office, the United Arab Emirates and NGO Committee on Social Development. The details for the event are:

The growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) raises fundamental questions about the type of societies we want to build and the kinds of lives they support. This online dialogue will explore vital questions of values, vision, ethics, and purpose with regard to AI, and ways that they are being addressed in social, technological, and political terms.

Panelists:

  • Major Hamad Khatir, Director of International Partnership, Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates
  • Ms. Eline Chivot, Senior Adviser on Digital Policy for the European People’s Party
  • Ms. Yu Ping Chang, UN representative on behalf of the Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Technology
  • Dr. Douglas Allen, Associate Professor of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

Sincerely,

Daniel Perell
Representative to the United Nations
Bahá’í International Community

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit  ngosocdev.org. For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

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