31 Oct. 2024

What Funding for What Development?

RLS Geneva

Side Event to the 2024 Human Rights Council Social Forum


Thursday 31 October 2024
14:00 – 15:00
Palais des Nations – Room XXIV

Background

Decades of colonial extraction, followed by economic liberalization, deregulation, and privatization enforced by the IMF and World Bank, have strengthened corporate control over economies while weakening developing countries’ ability to respond to crises. Public debt, illicit financial flows, and unfair tax rules drain resources, hindering efforts to achieve human rights, gender equality, and sustainable development. Disruptions in global supply chains, flexible labor schemes, and lack of social protection drive millions into poverty.

Neoliberal policies, backed by institutions like the World Bank, prioritize corporate profit over people’s rights, widening inequality and reinforcing global power imbalances. To counter this, the current economic order must be replaced with a model that allows for a effective implementation of the right to development.

Speakers

  • Mihir Kanade, member of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development
  • Jane Nalunga, Executive Director of SEATINI, member of the Coordination Group of the Civil Society FfD Mechanism
  • Todd Howland, Chief of the Development and Economic, Social Issues Branch, OHCHR
  • David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, PSI
  • Eva Wuchold, Programme Director Social Rights, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Geneva

This Side Event is organized by RLS Geneva, FIAN International and CETIM.