7 October

End Austerity Activism Festival 2023

To kick off the World Bank & IMF Annual Meetings, CSOs will come together to celebrate resistance against their failed economic model that puts profit before people and planet, and join forces in calling for a feminist, green and care-led agenda for the future.

The #EndAusterity campaign invites campaign members and allies, existing and new ones, to join the Festival to share their advocacy know-how and research, speak to their experience and lived realities in their communities, and inspire advocacy, action and art.

Register and see the agenda

8-9 October

Reclaim Our Future Conference

Organised by IBON International, Nawat institute, MENA Feminist Movement for Economic, Development and Ecological Justice, Reality of Aid Network, Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, International League of Peoples' Struggle, People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty, International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Pan-Asia Pacific, Asia Pacific Research Network, People over Profit, IMF-WBG, Out of Recovery

Taking place at Cadi Ayyad University Club in Marrakesh, Reclaim Our Future Conference is co-organised by social movements and civil society — from organisations in the Arab region and the global South to Indigenous Peoples organisations and food sovereignty advocates. It is a Southern-led event, encouraging participation of peoples around the world, towards tracing the IMF-WBG’s historical and systemic accountability for the multiple crises, and contributing to developing a counter-narrative, via a people’s history of these institutions.

The conference features plenaries on the current agenda of the IMF-WBG, the interventions of these IFIs in West Asia as well as Africa in general, and workshops on tracing these institutions’ responsibility for crises.

As part of the conference's programme, Eurodad is co-sponsoring the following sessions: 

• 8 October, 14:30-16:00 UTC+1 - Global south speakout on IMF/WBG’s role in the climate crisis

This session aims to provide the space for Global South climate justice and environmental groups to jointly pinpoint the responsibility of the IMF and World Bank Group in accelerating the climate and development crises. These global finance institutions claim to be climate champions and guide countries’ climate action while failing to recognise their responsibility in originating the crisis in the first place while remaining undemocratic and unaccountable. 

Moderator: Federico Sibaja (Recourse)

Speakers: Zain Moulvi (Alternative Law Collective), Julia Gerlo (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), Andri Prasetiyo (Senik Centre Asia), Izzah Rizvi (Indus Consortium), Anitha Sampath (Center for Financial Accountability), Lorraine Chiponda (Don’t Gas Africa), Dean Bhebe (Power Shift Africa), Mathias Lyamunda (Foundation for Environmental Management and Campaign Against Poverty), Suzan Nada (Movement for Economic Development and Ecological Justice), Jane Nalunga (Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute - SEATINI Uganda), Nahida Omney (Christian Aid Bangladesh).

• 9 October, 9:00-10:30 UTC+1 - Why focussing on private finance and public-private partnerships is not the solution to the polycrisis?

Co-organised by Jubilee Scotland, EURODAD, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, Oxfam International, Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education and Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

This hybrid session will explore the effects of the private sector bias by development finance institutions and multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank Group, highlighting the negative impacts of privatisation and PPPs implemented in both the global south and the global north. The session will also share experiences from ongoing CSO campaigns and case studies to expose these problematic practices. In the wake of multiple and interconnected crises, the promotion of private finance and PPPs is a false solution that needs to be challenged with a strong call for high quality public services. For in person participants translation will be available in Arabic, English and French.

Join via Zoom

Moderator: Maria José Romero (Eurodad)

Speakers: Alvic Padilla (Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development), Anna Marriott (Oxfam International), Anderson Miamen (Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education), Katelynne Kirk (Jubilee Scotland), Rodolfo Lahoy (IBON International) [TBC]. 

11 October
13.30 - 15.00 UTC+1

Defusing the Debt Time Bomb: The Role of an Effective Debt Prevention and Resolution Architecture

Organised by Jubilee USA Network, African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Arab Watch Coalition (AWC), Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, Caritas Africa, Debt Justice Norway, Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery (DRGR), Erlassjahr.de (Jubilee Germany), European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), Global Policy Forum, Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa – JENA.

Sixty countries struggle with high debt burdens and payments at the expense of health, social, climate and other priorities, with few of them having made use of available debt restructuring mechanisms. What needs to change in the debt architecture to encourage and deliver early, prompt and sufficient debt reductions?

Speakers:

• Shari Spiegel, Director, UN Financing for Sustainable Development Office
• Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development
• Guillaume Chabert, Deputy Director of Strategy, Policy, and Review, IMF
• Yuefen Li, Member, Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery
• Bodo Ellmers, Director of Financing for Sustainable Development Program, Global Policy Forum
• Olga Jbelli, Researcher, Arab NGO Network for Development

11 October
16.00 - 17.30 UTC+1

An Evolution Roadmap Responsive to Development Crises? Towards an External Evaluation of the World Bank’s Cascade

Organised by Reality of Aid, ActionAid International, Christian Aid, Coalition for Human Rights in Development (CHRD), European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), Gender Action, Global Development Policy Center, IBON International, Bretton Woods Project (BWP), Third World Network (TWN).

As the World Bank charts an institutional course rooted in private financing in its Evolution Roadmap, the panel will explore evidence to counter the basis of proposed reforms, and argue that only with an external independent review of cascade impacts can the World Bank effectively respond to development crises.

Speakers

• Bhumika Muchhala, Third World Network (moderator)
• Ndongo Sylla, International Development Economics Associates - IDEAs
• Anastasia Gekis, IFC (TBC)
• Maria José Romero, European Network on Debt and Development 

12 October
16.15 - 17.45 UTC+1

The B-Ready Project: A Significant Departure from the Doing Business Report?

Organised by ActionAid International, African Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation, Bretton Woods Project, Centre for Financial Accountability, Eurodad, International Trade Union Confederation, Third World Network. 

After the Doing Business Report (DBR) was discontinued, the World Bank quickly developed its successor, the Business-Ready (B-Ready) Project. This panel will consider whether B-Ready adequately addresses the critiques levelled at its predecessor around labor rights and public goods, and how well it advances the bank’s objectives during these challenging times.

Speakers

• Joel Odigie, Deputy General Secretary, African Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation
• Maju Varghese, Associate Director, Centre for Financial Accountability
• Ashina Mtsumi, Tax and Education Alliance Coordinator, ActionAid International
• Luiz Vieira, Coordinator, Bretton Woods Project
• Norman Loayza, Director, Global Indicators Group, World Bank