An online discussion on ‘COVID-19, Debt and Inequality in South Asia: Restructuring the Financial Architecture for Public Sectors’

As States invest more in public services to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, indebted countries in the global south are struggling to deliver basic services due to budget deficit and insufficient financial resources.

This webinar will present an overview of the debt burden of South Asian countries where millions of
poor and marginalised people are adversely impacted by the crisis, and explore:

1. Immediate measures South Asian countries should take to reduce debt burden;
2. Long-term strategies to strengthen public service financing;
3. The role of civil society organisations and social movements to push for debt cancellation.

This webinar is the third of a six-part webinar series on the ‘State of Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic in South Asia’, organised by FORUM-ASIA and the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE).

Date: 10 June 2020

Time: 3.00 – 4.30 pm (Nepal time)

Click to register or join the webinar directly here.
All interested individuals are invited to participate in the webinar. However, priority will be given to registered individuals should the webinar exceed quota of participants. The webinar will also be live streamed on FORUM-ASIA’s Facebook page.

Speakers:

• Mustafa Talpur, Inequality Campaign Lead-Asia, Oxfam International
• Sushovan Dhar, Anti-debt campaigner, India
• Abul Haseeb Khan, Director, Resource Integration Center (RIC), Bangladesh
• Amali Wedagedara, household debt researcher, Sri Lanka
• Zulaikha Rafiq, SAAPE member, Afghanistan
• Nalini Ratnarajah, Women’s rights activist, Sri Lanka