Trade unions set out demands for UN Financing for Development Forum

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has published its demands for the 2021 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Financing for Development (FfD) Forum to build recovery and resilience in the future economy.

 

The event brings together heads of state, ministers and high-level officials. It will consider solutions on financing the COVID-19 recovery and sustainable development on the path to 2030.

The ITUC demands in ‘Financing Recovery and Building the Economy of the Future’ that a New Social Contract and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are at the core of post-pandemic economic planning with:

• investments in jobs creation;
• climate-friendly jobs;
• scaling up universal social protection;
• and supporting the role of social partners in crafting sustainable measures for recovery and resilience.

Decent, climate-friendly jobs

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: “Support for employment should continue to reverse the economic and social consequences of the crisis, until the pandemic is defeated.

“We need universal access to testing, treatment, and vaccines. We need strategies and public policies to ensure the creation of decent jobs and climate-friendly jobs, accompanied by Just Transition measures, to guarantee that no one is left behind in industrial transformation processes.”

Recovery and resilience measures should be funded by:

• debt relief and increased public development assistance for developing countries, allowing them to manage crisis responses;
• resource mobilisation efforts through progressive taxation at national level complemented by strengthening international cooperation in ending tax evasion and illicit financial flows, including a minimum tax floor for all corporations, a billionaires or wealth tax, and a financial transactions tax.

“The response to the crisis must be built on the engagement of social partners to rebuild trust in institutions and assist in crafting equitable policies. We need a new model of global governance to redress the current imbalance of power and uneven distribution of wealth at international level. A truly inclusive multilateral system where social partners are on board and have a say will make the difference and pave the way to global resilience,” added Sharan Burrow.