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Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.

Public Service Day: Advocating for the Essential Role of Public Services

Public Service Day: Advocating for the Essential Role of Public Services

The Significance of Public Service Day


Public Service Day, observed annually on 23 June, was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002 to celebrate the value of public service, highlight its role in development and recognise the work of public servants. In the face of ongoing global challenges such as increasing privatisation and austerity measures, robust public services are crucial for social protection, good governance and addressing global challenges like poverty and climate change. Public Service Day serves as a critical reminder of their importance in building a fairer and more sustainable society, and reinforces the necessity of protecting these services from private sector encroachment.

 

Mid-Year Check-In: Advocating for Public Services Through Our Publications

 

Public services are the bedrock of a just and equitable society, ensuring that essential needs like education, healthcare and social protection are accessible to all, regardless of income or background. However, the increasing trend towards privatisation threatens to undermine these foundations by prioritising profit over public welfare. Robust public services stand as a crucial counterbalance to inequality and exclusion, promoting social justice and human rights. Recognising their importance, GI-ESCR has created several publications that dive deep into the current state of public services and make proposals to enhance their effectiveness and accessibility.

'Build Us More Schools! - The Quest for Quality Free Education in Mabatini and Ngei Wards of Mathare, Nairobi', our latest publication, reveals that despite the presence of private and low-cost schools, the quality and accessibility of education remain inadequate for many children, especially in informal settlements. The proliferation of private schools has led to significant disparities in education quality, with many children unable to afford school fees and related costs. This publication highlights the urgent need for government intervention to address these inequities and fulfil its constitutional mandate to provide free and compulsory basic education for every child.

'Access to Healthcare in Côte d'Ivoire: A Participatory-Action Research' reveals that public healthcare provision plays a vital role in ensuring that the right to health is accessible to all, especially the most marginalised groups. Unlike private healthcare, which often remains fragmented, expensive and inaccessible to low-income individuals, public healthcare facilities offer more affordable and specialised care. However, the research also underscores that public healthcare services in Côte d'Ivoire are severely underfunded and understaffed, necessitating urgent investment and support. This reinforces the importance of robust public services in realising fundamental human rights and reducing inequalities in healthcare access.

'Transformative Policies to Realise Universal Access to Medicines', which GI-ESCR published early in the year, underscores the crucial need for public services in the realm of healthcare. This policy brief highlights the limitations of commercial approaches to pharmaceutical innovation, which often prioritise profit over public health, leading to high medication prices and neglect of diseases that require treatments that are not lucrative. Instead, the brief advocates for policies such as knowledge commons and public options for pharmaceuticals, demonstrating that public ownership and open science can effectively address global health inequalities. By ensuring that essential medicines are accessible to all, without discrimination, these public options uphold the fundamental right to health.

'The Commons and Public Services: A New Way Forward or an Alternative to Human Rights?' underscores that the commercialisation of these services has led to a loss of democratic control, particularly harming the most disadvantaged. When these services are privatised, the focus shifts from public welfare to profit, often resulting in adverse outcomes for vulnerable populations. GI-ESCR's exploration of the Commons model suggests that enabling local communities to manage resources collectively can offer a more equitable and inclusive approach, challenging the profit-driven models and promoting a fairer distribution of resources.

'A Care-led Transition to a Sustainable Future', our first publication of the year touching upon the topic, emphasises the critical necessity for public services to address the intertwined crises of care and climate. Public services are essential to ensure equitable access to care, mitigate the impacts of climate change and uphold human rights. The publication argues that the privatisation of care services exacerbates inequalities, as only wealthier households can afford private care, leaving low-income families and marginalised groups without essential support. Public investment in care services, regulated and funded by the state, ensures that care is a collective responsibility and not an individual burden. This approach supports caregivers, predominantly women, and promotes gender equality and social justice, making societies more resilient and sustainable in the face of climate change and other global challenges.

 

Insights into the Perception of Public Services

 

GI-ESCR has commissioned a series of studies on the perception of public services, taking place in India, Nigeria and Latin America. These studies, conducted by the market research and public opinion agency 'Lexia', aim to shed light on the critical state of public services, focusing primarily on education and healthcare. The studies reveal a complex landscape of perceptions across different regions, emphasising the urgent need for policy interventions to address disparities and improve service quality.

In Latin America, the studies highlighted significant disparities in the access to and quality of public services, particularly for vulnerable groups such as those facing multidimensional poverty and gender-based inequalities. The data emphasised the urgent need for policies that address these disparities to ensure that public services fulfil their role in promoting social justice and human rights. Click here to read more.

In Nigeria, the research underscored the severe challenges faced by the public sector, particularly in education and healthcare. The public's perception was marked by a lack of trust in the quality and reliability of government services, with many preferring private alternatives despite the higher costs. This situation was compounded by systemic issues such as corruption and inadequate infrastructure, which severely undermined the effectiveness of public services. Click here to read more.

In India, the study revealed a nuanced view of public services. While there was recognition of the improvements made in recent years, particularly in healthcare, significant challenges remained. The public sector was seen as essential for providing affordable services, but it struggled with issues of quality and efficiency. The ambivalent perception of public services in India reflected the trade-offs that citizens had to make between cost, quality and accessibility. Click here to read more.

Commissioning these studies is an academic exercise as well as a vital part of our advocacy work. By gathering data directly from diverse communities, we can paint an accurate picture of the challenges faced by people in accessing quality public services. This evidence is necessary for formulating effective policies and advocacy strategies to ensure that public services meet the needs of all individuals, especially the most vulnerable. The reports provide the necessary data to understand public sentiment and the real-world impacts of service privatisation.

 

 

GI-ESCR remains committed to advocating for robust public services that uphold human rights and promote social justice. Our ongoing research and publications serve as critical tools in highlighting the disparities and challenges faced by communities worldwide, reinforcing the necessity of government intervention and public investment. By drawing attention to these issues, we aim to inspire action and policy changes that will ensure equitable access to essential services for all.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.