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On the Ground
Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.
Exploring the Nexus Between Debt Justice and Human Rights in Accra, Ghana
Between 26 and 29 August 2025, we participated in regional CSO events in Accra, Ghana, related to debt justice.
On 26 August, we took part in the "Pan African Feminist Perspectives on Debt: Building an African feminist debt justice framework" validation workshop of three papers, respectively titled: "Towards an African Feminist Perspective to Public Debt Management"; "Transnational Solidarity and Resistance Movements"; and "Debt, Climate Change and Ecological Justice". The African Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and the Nawi Afrifem Collective co-organized the event.
Nicole Maloba, Dinah Musindarwezo, and Siviwe Mhlana presented the papers, which were followed by expert discussants' interventions that highlighted each paper's strengths and areas for improvement.
The papers underscore the following issues.
- When public services are underfunded due to unsustainable debt levels, women step in to provide them by performing unpaid care work at the expense of their well-being and aspirations.
- Beyond debt forgiveness, it is crucial to truly transform the global financial system to avoid repeating the patterns that have brought countries back to a debt cycle.
- Decolonising the economy and putting women at the centre involve going beyond GDP and embracing a degrowth approach.
- Countries with already constrained fiscal space are forced to spend on climate action to respond to a crisis they did not cause. Compared to spending on social services, there is a trade-off from a gender perspective when spending on climate.
After the papers were presented and analysed, the floor was open for input from the audience. We contributed to the discussion by bringing in the human rights perspective by highlighting relevant provisions from the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Maputo Protocol, and related soft law instruments, which provide an avenue to intersect economic justice, women's ESC rights, and broader human rights within the African context.
From 27 to 29 August, we participated in the 5th African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD) convened by AFRODAD under the theme "Africa's Debt Crisis: A Reparations and Reparative Justice Framework Analysis". This flagship event brought together over 500 participants from all parts of the African continent and beyond, including representatives from the Government of Ghana, the African Union, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), people of African descent, African parliamentarians, CSOs, and grassroots movements.
On the first day, a keynote address and a series of sessions set the tone for the conference. They highlighted the colonial and illegitimate origin of African countries' debt inherited in exchange of independence; the current unfair debt architecture which is another form of colonialism; the connection between the debt crisis and the climate crisis rooted in the extractive system of colonialism; the need to frame debt as a human rights issue; the importance of adopting innovative laws and disruptive litigation to address odious debts. All speakers agreed that reparations should be multidimensional in remedying the multifaceted past and present wrongs (economic, social, cultural, environmental, spiritual, etc.).
On the second day, breakout sessions were organised, and we contributed to Session 14 entitled "Feminist Fiscal Justice, Debt Restructuring, and Challenging Regressive Tax Policies in Southern Africa," co-organised by Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) and the Zimbabwean Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD). This panel explored how unjust tax regimes, unsustainable public debt, and the influence of international financial institutions (IFIs) in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique disproportionately impact women and marginalised communities.
Drawing on lived experiences, feminist fiscal justice perspectives, and research from ZIMCODD's regional compendium on sovereign debt restructuring, alongside a forthcoming report on IMF-driven tax reforms, the session interrogated how revenue policies, debt burdens, and IFI conditionalities deepen gendered inequality and erode public services. The discussion advocated progressive, gender-responsive tax systems, rights-based debt restructuring, and alternatives to regressive fiscal policies imposed by external actors.
As a panellist, our contribution to that session underscored the human rights approach to debt, tax, women's ESC rights, and state obligations to finance public services, especially in the African human rights system. It also highlighted the impact of IMF-backed austerity measures on women's and girls' rights to education and health. Although Ghana is not a Southern African state, the moment was still appropriate to share some findings of our upcoming multi-country study on the impact of austerity measures on the rights to education and health, which covers Ghana, the host nation of AfCoDD V.
On the third and last day of the conference, a pan-African debt rally took place in the streets of Accra. It brought to the fore CSOs' key demand: debt cancellation as part of reparations.
