Global South Women’s Forum 2020- A Feminist Alternative to Privatisation - Outcome report of the session

On 17 December 2020, GI-ESCR jointly with the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Oxfam India and Public Services International (PSI) hosted a session on ‘Advancing Human Rights through Gender-Responsive Public Services: A feminist Alternative to Privatisation’ at the Global South Women Forum for Sustainable Development: Disrupting Macroeconomic (GSWF 2020) organized by IWRAW- AP.

The session convened feminist activists and experts from all over the world to explore the wide-ranging implications of the privatisation of public services on women’s rights and to learn from and share feminist alternatives for the promotion of rights-based public services to advance gender equality.

During the session, Magdalena Sepúlveda, Executive Director of GI-ESCR and Former Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights moderated the discussions between three experts and activists: Kate Donald (CESR), Verónica Montúfar (PSI) and Anjela Taneja (Oxfam India).

The three main speakers shared their insights concerning the implications of the privatisation of public services for women’s rights and explored which are the feminist alternatives to the privatisation and commodification of public services.

The report of the session provides a summary of the debate between the speakers and the audience, and the main key ideas that emerged during the conversation.

The report also includes a list of resources and materials that were shared during the session by the speakers and the audience to continue building collective knowledge on the links between women’s rights, gender equality and the privatisation of essential public services. 

It also aims at contributing to the conversation on feminist alternatives to the privatisation of public services in order to collectively build new rights-based narratives and reclaim public services.

See the video of the event.

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