Midwife Lakech Zenebe works at the BirBir Health Clinic in the maternal/child health section. She says that on average the clinic handles about 22 deliveries per month, and about three of them might have complications. (Photo: Petterik Wiggers/Oxfam)
What is WSSD?
The first World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) was held 30 years ago in Copenhagen where world leaders committed to eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment, and fostering social integration.
The second WSSD, to be held in Qatar from 4-6 November, will validate the Doha Political Declaration, which aims to recommit to agenda set in Copenhagen and build momentum towards more inclusive, just, and sustainable societies and fulfilling the 2030 Agenda.
Why it's important?
Strong public services are at the heart of making poverty and inequality history. Universal access to quality education, health care, social protection, water, and sanitation builds human capabilities, reduces inequality, and strengthens the social contract between governments and citizens. However, underinvestment, privatization and financialization, as well as cuts in official development assistance, the debt crisis and other threats, have led to widespread exclusion, widening inequality, and the erosion of rights, placing significant hurdles in the path of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Oxfam leaders, experts, and partners will be attending the summit to sustain the focus and urgency for strong, inequality busting, publicly financed and accountable services, which are both a moral imperative and a strategic investment. The Summit presents a key opportunity to advance this message and to urge all present to focus on public services as the foundation that guarantees thriving societies and resilient economies that work for all.
Our key priorities will be to:
- Advance a new rights-based social contract for public services that addresses poverty and inequality and promotes social cohesion and climate justice through cross-sectoral collaboration.
- Showcase proven solutions and positive country examples, highlight false solutions and narratives, and elevate radical alternatives around the role of the state in public service delivery.
- Build momentum to support mechanisms that can advance the idea of a new social contract in support of increased investment and focus in public services.
Who is attending?
Amitabh Behar
Executive Director Oxfam International
Anjela Taneja
Public Services and Inequality Policy and Advocacy Lead
Moutaz Adham
Advisory- Strategic Relations, MENA Platform
Oxfam will also join and support various coalition partners at the event.
Events
Oxfam will feature at the following events:
3rd November
- Realizing the Right to Education: Reclaiming Public Systems for Equity and Inclusion, 5-6.30pm Arab Standard Time (AST) [GMT+03:00].
4th November
- Stepping up development co-operation’s role in tackling poverty and inequalities, 3:00-4:15pm AST [GMT+03:00].
- Roundtable 1: Strengthening the three pillars of social development: poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all, and social inclusion, 3:00-6:00pm AST (GMT+03:00).
- Universal Social Protection for Equitable Growth and Equitable Societies, 4:45-6:00pm AST (GMT+03:00).
5th November
- Empowering Lives: Financing Social Protection for Gender Equality and Inclusive Development, 10:00-11:15am AST (GMT+03:00).
- Special Events of the Summit: Global Coalition for Social Justice Forum, 11.30-14.30pm AST (GMT+03:00).
- Our Future is Public: Public Services for Social Development, 3:00-4:15pm AST (GMT+03:00).
- Care at the Heart of Social Development: Advancing Care-Centered Solutions for an Equitable World, 4:45-6:00pm AST (GMT+03:00).
- The Road To Self-Reliance In Public Health: A Case for Regional Approaches as a Development Strategy, 4:45-6:00pm AST (GMT+03:00).
6th November
- Special Event: CSO Forum: Objective 10. Public-First Approach for Public Services: Time for a new eco-social contract, 12:45-2:00pm AST (GMT+03:00).
Contact
For any queries or to follow up with us after the event, please contact either Anjela Taneja (Anjela.Taneja@oxfam.org) or Hernan Saez (Hernan.Saenz@oxfam.org).