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Advocacy International (Ai) is a social enterprise, co-founded by Ann Pettifor in 2003. From January 2010 Ann is joined by two new full-time directors, Maz Kessler and Jeremy Smith. Ai works with governments, local authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, trade unions and other clients to advance and achieve public interest goals. These include economic justice, human development, high quality public services, and a liveable environment. Ann joins Joseph Stiglitz, Tariq Ali and Ruth Lea on Al Jazeera’s “Empire” With Saturday’s Iceland referendum due in just a couple of days (6th March), Ann and Jeremy have an op-ed article in today’s Morgunbladid, Iceland’s main daily newspaper. English version> Icelandic version> Press release> Full text of the article follows: So the negotiations have broken down, British and Dutch “bullying” (FT 27 February, 2010) continues and the referendum goes ahead. What next? We emphasize that this is not a sovereign debt crisis, even if the British and Dutch want us to think it is. It is a crisis of EU regulatory failure, and of the Anglo-American economic model. The people of Iceland have a deep democratic tradition, and through the referendum have the opportunity to assert their sovereignty and autonomy. Their leadership and example will encourage people in other democracies to reject harsh cuts in public services and living standards made at the behest of the very people and institutions responsible for the crisis. For through the wholesale nationalisation of private losses, we are all – not only in Iceland – asked to pay the price of private, reckless risk-taking.
Download today’s talk for EcoBuild on how we can afford a Green New Deal here > Women – mothers – die in pregnancy and childbirth for want of cheap, standard medicines that we take for granted in high-income countries. At Advocacy International, we have long advocated that access to basic, essential medicines is an effective, affordable and measurable step towards “shifting the numbers” and finally beginning to save mother’s lives. To this we would emphatically add rapid training for an army of women health workers able to care for mothers and newborns in their homes and villages.
Our analysis, driven by the work of Professor Anthony Costello of UCL, has until very recently run contrary to that of experts who maintain that comprehensive “health system strengthening” is the only solution that will work for mothers. But it looks as if this is finally starting to change, and that could be incredibly good news for mothers in the world’s poorest places. When Advocacy International first began our research into maternal survival two years ago, we were reminded of our own history both in the UK and the US: that women stopped dying in childbirth in large numbers only when antibiotics came widely into use in the 1930s and ‘40s.
However when discussing women in poor countries we tend to forget this history. Instead we have convinced ourselves that in Africa and Asia the issues are too complicated to begin to address with straightforward interventions such as access to essential medicines — and too complicated to invite the public to back a massive campaign (like AIDs campaigns for ARVs, or distributing bed nets for Malaria). They’re not. The public – particularly the immensely powerful constituency of women and mothers worldwide – would jump at the chance to be involved in a campaign to deliver medicines for mothers and newborns. But only if there is an effective, affordable solution to rally around, such as the bed net, antiretrovirals or vaccinations. Fortunately, we are beginning to see a shift towards investing in such a solution, and a campaign. My conversation earlier this week with Elena Sisti – of Italy’s Altreconomia on macro-economics, reform of the finance sector, money, and yes, how we women have left the all-important matter of finance to the boys. Big mistake. It’s time to get in there, and exercise influence. Too much is at stake.
Women will have to work to feminise macrofinance – by taking economics courses; by challenging economic orthodoxy; by taking positions in banking and finance. Above all, by understanding the nature of credit and bank money. October 2009 Barcelona and Reykjavik; January 2010 Strasbourg – these are just the latest major cities to sign up to the European Charter for Equality of women and men in local life. Nearly 1000 towns, cities and regions have committed themselves to gender equality across the range of their powers, since the Charter was first launched at our congress in Innsbruck in 2006, and signed by Hilde Zach, the feisty and tireless Mayor of that beautiful Austrian city.
Drafting the Charter was not easy – it is quite a dense document (even I must confess!), which at one and the same time asserts legal rights, and also offers practical ideas and guidance. The aim is that every town and city that signs up should have and implement a real gender action plan. The Charter covers all of the different roles of the local authority – political and democratic representation, major employer, service deliverer, contractor… there’s a section on all of these. Last Thursday I was back in Brussels, invited by the European Parliament’s special committee on the financial, economic and social crisis. My mission – to highlight the really serious financial problems now facing Europe’s local and regional governments, just as growing un-(and under) employment make their public services ever more essential. I gave them the key points of the November 2009 survey of national local government associations which CEMR had conducted. The results were overwhelmingly pessimistic… three quarters said things had got worse for their members (the individual towns etc.) during 2009, and about half thought they would get worse in 2010 – under 10%, mainly in Scandinavia, thought they would improve this year. Over two-thirds thought that councils’ budgets would reduce in real terms in 2010, and a similar proportion said their income had reduced substantially in 2009. Published in the Financial Times: January 7, 2010 From Ms Ann Pettifor and Mr Jeremy Smith. Sir, The president of Iceland’s refusal to approve repayment to the British and Dutch governments should be welcomed (January 5). The pause gives the Anglo-Dutch governments an opportunity to withdraw their demand for full repayment from the government of Iceland, a country whose population at 317,000 is somewhat smaller than Leicester’s. |
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