The COVID-19 pandemic has cast the consequences of decades of privatisation and commercialisation of services essential for the realisation of human rights into stark relief. COVID-19 rocked the MENA countries, which have been suffering from lack of investments in the public health system and a significant shortage of human capacity in the form of teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers.
This is the consequence of economic liberalisation, privatisation, and austerity measures promoted since the 1980s by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The most common austerity measures in the Arab world have been to reduce subsidies for basic goods, reduce or freeze public sector wages, increase consumption taxes, and reform retirement systems and social safety nets. This directly resulted in stripped public sectors.
For example, under its 2016 IMF agreement, Egypt slashed its public sector, resulting in total public sector wages declining from 8.1% of GDP in 2014 to 5.3% of GDP in 2018. In 2020-2021, Egypt allocated only 1.37% of its GDP to health, even though its 2014 Constitution requires the government to allocate at least 3%. When the pandemic struck, the healthcare system was underfunded and understaffed.
The public sector in the MENA region is cut to the bone when it comes to social spending: social support is far from universal and usually comes in the form of cash transfers, earnings-related social insurance schemes, and food and fuel subsidies. The region is also characterised by low levels of public expenditure on education and health, while private expenditure on health is relatively high, meaning the most vulnerable people in society have limited access to health services.
Such policies will not reduce the socio-economic and gender-related inequalities that plague the region.
A global manifesto for public services
The pandemic has boosted the public demand for the re-establishment of crucial public services. Movements have sprung up demanding alternatives to the market-based models that have failed to ensure a dignified life for all.
In October 2021, civil society organisations and citizens’ movements launched a global manifesto calling for a renewed approach to public services. The manifesto aims to respond to the ecological crisis and rampant inequalities that the world is currently facing, offering a concrete alternative to the dominant neoliberal model that has failed to deliver on human rights and ensure a dignified life for all.
The manifesto positions public services as the foundation of a fair and just society, a social pact that implements the core values of solidarity, equality and human dignity. A civil society strategy meeting will be held in the MENA region in early 2022 to develop joint campaigning, advocacy and action strategies on public services, building on the manifesto.
The pandemic has reinforced the urgent need for a change in direction in the MENA region. New transformative policies are needed to redress inequalities and build fully inclusive and resilient societies that can respond to the pressures arising from global crises.
Public services are essential for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to health. As stated in the manifesto, funding these services is possible with fair taxation and domestic/global solidarity mechanisms, like debt cancellation.
The European Union has also a role to play in stressing that public services must be protected from the market economy, commercialisation and financialisaton, in the EU and abroad. This should be reflected in the EU’s future neighbourhood policies and bilateral trade agreements with Southern Mediterranean countries.
Frederik Johannisson, Economic and Social Rights Programme Officer at EuroMed Rights and Sarah K Jameson, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Civil society members interested in becoming involved in the MENA civil society strategy discussed above, please contact Sarah at [email protected].