Economic Policies for Social Justice

By Mariem Jrad - FES MENA

The world is facing a debt crisis. The most affected are the poorest countries because they spend more on debt repayments than on education, health and social security.

The importance of shedding the light on public debt and its impact on the overall economic situation of a country cannot be overlooked. Accordingly, it is crucial that the legislature branch steps in and exercises its role in monitoring public debt and managing the procedures for any borrowing in foreign currency.

In this context, the End the Debt Trap (ETDT) project saw the light; its goal is to advance policy solutions to help mitigate unsustainable debt for developing countries or countries vulnerable to excessive borrowing.

The Friderich Ebert Stiftung (FES) via the representation of its offices in the Global South and the global policy departments in berlin and New York in implementing the ETDT project to draw out a strategy to prepare local civil society in the focus countries to assist them in advocating for new legislations that require debt transparency and mandate the preauthorization of the Parliament before any debt contract. After all, public debts are to be repaid by citizens, and the Parliament as the representative authority, must convey the aspirations of its voters and oversee its needs and serve their best interests.

For the project’s success, FES and its partners shall determine priority countries in which they will organize legislative advocacy campaigns with local policymakers, convene regional workshops and develop an advocacy toolkit to be disseminated with media and MPs.

Furthermore, FES aims to explore sustainable policies and to engage with the policy makers in the affected countries, and as such needs to actively take part in key global opportunities such as the United Nations review of the International Debt Architecture in the Summit of the Future in New York in September 2024, and the 4^th International Conference for Financing for Development (FfD) in Madrid in July 2025.

FES seeks to build partnerships and to establish key networking opportunities to promote the goals of the ETDT project.

In this framework, and in preparations for the next FfD Conference in Spain, the UN Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) is being hosted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 22-26^th, 2024.

Thereby, FES in collaboration with the UN FfD office will co-organize three sessions on the 21^st of July, just prior to the PrepCom.

For more details, stay tuned. We will share more details soon.

You can also visit the Foundation's office in New York at the following address https://ny.fes.de/article/side-event-ffd4-prepcom-in-addis-ababa.html

Or the website of the Foundation's office in Addis Ababa https://ny.fes.de/article/side-event-ffd4-prepcom-in-addis-ababa.html