Ei-iE

Education International
Education International

Global Unions demand more equitable and sustainable growth and development

published 14 April 2011 updated 18 April 2011

The Council of Global Unions, to which EI belongs, has issued a statement to the 2011 meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to demand they “pay as much attention to employment deficits as they do to fiscal deficits and to take co-ordinated action to support job creation, education and skills training.”

The group of Global Union Federations (GUFs) added that “international financial institutions (IFIs) like the IMF and World Bank have a responsibility to promote recovery programmes that have more equitable and sustainable growth and development models.”

They also declared that “IFIs must act responsibly to protect quality public services that are vital to societies’ development, such as education and health care.”

According to the GUFs, “reduced spending foreducation could create a‘lost generation’ of children and youngpeople with insufficient education.”

EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, said: “Fiscal consolidation plans should be designed to reduce inequalities, not exacerbate them. They should include new sources of revenue, such as a financial transactions tax(FTT), which would ensure substantial contributions from the financial sector for resolving the economic and fiscal crises that it caused.”

Van Leeuwen went on to highlight that with “the support for financing job-intensive recovery programmes and achieving development and climate-finance goals, the IMF should assist in co-ordinating the effective implementation of a global FTT.”

EI invites leaders of its member organisations to sign and send a model letter to their Minister of Finance and the Executive Director of the IMF and the World Bank.

The full Global Union’s statement and campaigning tools are available.