Joint Report Launch: The Public versus Austerity: Why Public Sector Wage Bill Constraints Must End
ActionAid, Public Services International, and Education International invite you to join the launch of the new joint report:

The Public versus Austerity: Why Public Sector Wage Bill Constraints Must End’.

Register here for the event on 12th October and then join the segments of the launch that you are most interested in as we roll through regions and time zones. There will be a single link provided and you can dip in and out.

08:00 – 10:00 GMT- Asia launch (Vietnam, Nepal)

10:00 – 12:00 GMT – East and Southern Africa launch (Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe)

12:00 – 13:30 GMT – International launch (with French translation)

13:30 – 16:00 GMT – West Africa launch (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal – with French translation)

Join the leadership of ActionAidPublic Services InternationalEducation International, and prominent figures from anti-austerity movements as well as national union representatives and frontline workers. A full schedule of speakers and sessions will be shared in advance for those who register.

Background

The Public Versus Austerity: Why Public Sector Wage Bill Constraints Must End

The world faces a series of inter-connecting crises and responding to them will demand a complete disruption of business as usual. In the light of Covid, the growing debt crisis, rising inequality, gender injustice, and the climate crisis there is an urgent need to revisit the fundamental redistributive role of States and to reimagine the public sector. Over the past forty years, austerity policies have led to cuts in the public sector workforce that have undermined the ability of governments to deliver quality public services. Whether imposed from outside by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or from inside by Ministries of Finance who have internalised neoliberal ideology, one of the central austerity policy that most acutely impacts public services is the imposition of public sector wage bill constraints – harming the delivery of gender-responsive public services. There are direct two consequences:

  • Blocks to the recruitment of new teachers, nurses, and other essential workers, even where there are severe shortages; and
  • Strict limits to the already low pay of existing health, education, and other public sector workers undermine recruitment and retention of qualified staff.

Based on ground-breaking research ActionAid, Public Services International, and Education International expose how austerity cuts in just 15 countries have blocked the recruitment of over 3 million nurses, teachers, and other essential public sector workers. The findings reveal a deeply embedded mindset that is irrationally anti-public sector. Implementation of public sector wage bill cuts is revealed as both blunt and directionless, contradicting development goals and undermining the capacity of governments to respond to intersecting crises – undermining progress on health, education, and gender equality while blocking climate action in some of the world’s poorest countries.

The IMF’s own research shows that neoliberalism has been oversold for forty years and has stifled the very growth and development it was supposed to value. It is time for a system change focused on economic justice, with public services at the core a more caring, feminist, green, and just future.

On behalf of the entire team working to end public sector wage bill cuts ActionAid, Public Services International, and Education International hope you join this call to action to #EndAusterity and attend the epic launch of #PublicVsAusterity

Remember to register HERE

Share this article

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end exclusion in education. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education.