Washington D.C., October 2019
”The undersigned reject the IMF austerity policies implemented in Ecuador, Argentina and Haiti, with agreements that include the restriction of public investment, reduction of labor rights, establish tax amnesties for the corporate sector and trigger continued deterioration in public services.
The IMF’s re-engagement and influence in Latin America and the Caribbean has been marked by the implementation of now-familiar austerity and structural reform policies. The impact of these policies has been devastating to the social well-being and economic prosperity of individuals and communities.
It is deeply regrettable that governments resort to the use of force and human rights violations to implement austerity policies, which may themselves be contradictory to state human rights obligations. In practice, as the current situation in Zimbabwe proves, IMF-supported austerity policies that lead to similar negative impacts should not be implemented.
The criminalization of social protest through repression of indigenous people, trade unionists, students, women, and children, which has even resulted in the loss of human lives in Ecuador, clearly demonstrates that these policies are not the solution.
Civil society organizations have repeatedly raised the following social and economic concerns which are now evident in both policy and practice in Ecuador, Argentina, and Haiti:
- Regressive tax reforms implemented within an unjust global tax framework infringe the
rights of populations, benefiting large corporations and enabling capital flight; - Reforms favoring labor flexibilization are measures that result in casualization of work, poor labor conditions and the erosion of workers’ rights;
- Subsidy cuts directly affect the most vulnerable sectors of the population whilst set against a regime of tax incentives most often designed to support the interests of the corporate sector over and above the interests of the public good;
- Major economic problems are not resolved with large debts that countries will not be able to repay;
- The current global financial architecture creates an unfair debt restructuring process.
- The IMF’s criteria for exchange rate and monetary policy, and its implementation by Central Banks, benefits holders of significant pools of private capital;
- Austerity policies trigger a serious deterioration in the living conditions of populations and a consequent increase in poverty, inequalities and social exclusion, and undermine the ambition reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals.
The implementation of IMF programs at national levels, without a fundamental transformation of the international financial architecture, will continue to produce negative economic and social impacts.
This is not the way to either prevent or resolve a crisis. The IMF has to change its austerity and deregulatory structural reform policies. Countries must have access to financing with sovereignty over their economic policies and where the State can guarantee human rights, civil and political, as well as economic and social rights, in line with their Constitutions and international treaties, and with the participation of diverse sectors of society, including social movements of indigenous people, women, and workers.”
- Red Latinoamericana por la Justicia Económica y Social (Latindadd)
- European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)
- Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y El Caribe (RJF-LAC)
- Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
- Action Aid International
- Tax Justice Network (TJN)
- IBON International
- Society for International Development (SID)
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
- Global Policy Forum
- Public Services International (PSI)
- CDES, Ecuador
- Fundación SES, Argentina
- Jubilee USA, United States
- Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, India
- Both ENDS, The Netherlands
- Rural Area Development Programme-RADP, Nepal
- Uganda Debt Network, Uganda
- National Coalition of Civil Society Organizations of Liberia (NACCSOL), Liberia
- Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITM), Uruguay
- Urgewald, Germany
- Jubilee Asutralia, Australia
- Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), Zimbabwe
- Servicios Profesionales para el Desarrollo Rural y la Agricultura (SEDRA), Chile
- The Equality Trust, UK
- Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia, México
- Bretton Woods Project, UK
- Jasmine Gideon, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, University of Birkbeck
University of London, UK - Decidamos, Paraguay
- Passionists International, United States
- Attac, Austria
- CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium
- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Argentina
- Corporación Centro de Apoyo Popular-Centrap/ Red de Educación Popular entre Mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe -Repem
- Cedetrabajo, Colombia