During the webinar speakers discussed perspectives and demands of movements in the global South for debt cancelation and debt relief, as well as for tax justice to respond to multiple crises and rising inequalities, looking at both cases of national tax agendas and the global tax architecture.
Today, the G7 Finance Ministers issued a communiqué announcing their joint agreement on new global tax rules, including a global minimum corporate tax rate and a special new tax on some of the world’s largest corporations.
In response to the G7 agreement, Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Coordinator at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), said:
“We have three overall concerns with the new global tax measures that the G7 countries are outlining. In essence, they are not fair, they are not ambitious, and there is a high risk they will lead to a more complex and ineffective tax system.”
Ryding also expressed strong concerns about the way the G7 is trying to decide what the global corporate tax system should look like.
“The negotiation about new global tax rules belongs at the United Nations, where all countries can participate on an equal footing, rather than at a small rich countries’ club like the G7.”
Debt audits can be a powerful tool to support civil society engagement in citizen assessment of debt impacts but also to increase citizens’ participation in public finance governance, leading to an increase in accountability and transparency and allowing for the identification of illegitimate debts at the national, regional and municipal level.
This briefing is a general introduction to debt audits, what they can contribute and their main characteristics, while also providing references to manuals and articles on debt audits. It is intended to support civil society organisations (CSOs) and government officials that are thinking about promoting a debt audit by providing some initial ideas about how to initiate this kind of process.
The briefing covers:
- What is a debt audit?
- What we can expect from a debt audit
- What is analysed under a debt audit
- How to start and continue the process
- Difficulties that can be expected
- Previous examples of debt audits
- Resources and more information.
“Rewrite the Rules, Make Taxes Work for Women” is a theme song produced by the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) for its campaign on tax and gender justice. The song urges listeners to make taxes work for women and to “rewrite the rules that oppress us.” It is inspired by the calls of women that have intensified with the deepening inequalities across the globe amidst the Covid19 pandemic, economic recession, and, climate emergency.
Performed by Meggy Katigbak, the song was launched on 17 March 2021 during a CSW65 (sixty-fifth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women) NGO Virtual Parallel Event called “A Tapestry of Women’s Voices Fighting the Multiple Crises.”
The song seeks to inspire solidarity and action. It is to be shared, sung, amplified. We would appreciate if you let us know how you’ve used the song or the music video.
APMDD’s demands for tax and fiscal justice:
- Reduce Unfair Tax Burden on Women
- Remove gender bias and discriminatory provisions in tax policies
- Recognise, represent, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work
- Increase allocation of tax revenues for public services.
- Stop corporate tax abuse. Stop illicit financial flows. Establish a democratic, inclusive and transparent Global Tax Body under the auspices of the UN
Lyrics
CHORUS
Rewrite the rules
Make taxes work for women
Rewrite the rules
Make taxes work for women
VERSE I
Society, for centuries
condemned us-brutally fit us
into a mold they shaped for us
one that they always formed for us
Women have struggled, toiled, and fought
We have fought to be seen and won-
We have won the right of suffrage
We still have many fights to win
VERSE II
I grow the food and cook the meal
But have no place at your table
That’s the rule, you say, that’s the rule
But life should not be so cruel
Who set the rules, it’s you, you say
All the care, work, and taxes I pay
From what little that I own
But where does my money go?
VERSE III
Every day, everywhere, we pay
Taxes to eat, to heal, to die
You bury us in taxes
You rest on our belabored backs
Now we shout “tax the rich, not the poor!”
Rewrite the rules to make them right
For justice and equality
Rewrite the rules, we want them right!
BRIDGE
Rewrite the rules that oppress us
Make taxes work for women’s rights!
This briefing provides an overview of the dynamics and implications of the 2020 sovereign debt crisis. The prioritisation of creditor rights over the livelihoods of the population of developing countries is a well-known dead-end. Instead, the international community must recognise that the health and wellbeing of millions of people in developing countries is a precondition for debt sustainability.
The apparent financial resilience of developing countries in the aftermath of the Covid-19 shock is misleading. It is the result of a combination of cyclical factors in the form of sectoral adjustments and monetary policy responses triggered by the pandemic. Promoting a prompt return of countries to international financial markets without addressing the debt vulnerabilities exacerbated by the crisis will increase the external financial fragility of developing countries. In turn, it will require a growing transfer of resources from public borrowers to their external creditors over the coming decade. Until now, countries across the world have done so at great human and social costs to their populations. Continuing down this path will sound the death knell for the commitments under the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Beijing Declaration.
The Covid-19 crisis threatens to erode two-decades’ of progress on poverty reduction in Bangladesh. This difficult situation highlights the need for a more ambitious response to the crisis.
This blog has been written by ActionAid Bangladesh as part of a series of articles produced in conjunction with Eurodad on the implementation of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), to complement the report “Shadow report on the limitations of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative: Draining out the Titanic with a bucket?” published in October 2020.