EVENT

 

 

Date and time: June 18, 2025, 3.30 pm – 5.30 pm Bangkok time (Check your country time here.)

Link for registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/p2JUydU2SIuDceDcxIdF5w

Introduction and context setting: Beena Pallical, Asia Dalit Rights Forum/GCAP

 

SESSION 1: Discussion on pressing issues in Asia (1 Hour 15 minutes)

 

Moderation: Anselmo Lee, APSD Coordinator

 

– Keynote speaker: Jomo K Sundaram, Economist and senior adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur (10 min)

– Rising Inequality in Asia: Mustafa Talpur, Oxfam Asia (7 min)

-Impact on climate change on marginalised communities: Zia Ur Rehman, Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA) (7 min)

-Implications of reducing development aid in Asia: Meirinda Sebayang, Executive Director, Jarangan Indonesia Positif (JIP) (7 min)

-Looking at economic justice from gender angle: Pam Rajput, Professor Emeritus, Punjab University, India (7 min)

-CSO engagement in the FFD4 process: Aoi Horiuchi, Japan NGO Centre for International Cooperation (JANIC) (7 min)

-Case study presentation:
a. Adrian D Curz, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (On inequality) (5 min)
b. Tessa Seville, Philippines Rural Reconstruction Movement (On climate change) (5 min)

– Open discussion (10 min)

 

SESSION 2: Launching the Economic Justice Mobilisation (35 minutes)

 

Moderation: Jagat Patnaik, Action Aid International

 

– Sharing the sign on statement – Praman Adhikari, SAAPE/LDC Watch (10 min)

– Planning Asia mobilisation for the FfD4 conference – Pradeep Baisakh, GCAP and other members (10 min)

– Open discussion

– Concluding Remarks and thank giving: Jamila Asanova, Asia Development Alliance (5 min)

 

Concept Note

We Stand with Billions, Not Billionaires
Cancel the Debt, Change the System

You can endorse our Sign – On statement here.

We live in a critical moment in history. Humanity is confronted with massive economic and climate injustice, because the system is rigged — and we are all paying the price. This unjust economic system advantages rich countries to the detriment of poorer nations, fossil fuels over clean energy, and billionaire oligarchs over everyone else. The super-rich and large corporations control the media, manipulate politicians and dodge taxes — increasing their political power and trapping billions of people in poverty.

While billionaires, big corporations and rich nations hoard wealth and power, climate disasters and crushing debt push billions deeper into poverty. The richest 1% pollute more than the poorest 66%, yet vulnerable communities bear the devastation — with floods, fires, and storms wiping out lives and livelihoods. The wealthiest countries owe an enormous debt for this damage, which impacts women, youth and marginalised groups the hardest.

At the same time, nearly one in three countries face a catastrophic debt crisis — the biggest in a generation. Instead of funding healthcare and schools, low-income countries are forced to pay billions to wealthy creditors, at crushing interest rates, while institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose brutal austerity. When public services fail, women and girls bear the heaviest burden, as they perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work.

At the heart of this injustice is an outdated global financial system that fuels inequality and the climate crisis. We must fight back — and there is a better way!

Turn Debt into Hope

2025 is a Jubilee Year — a rare opportunity to cancel debts and start afresh. Let’s create a new financial system to prevent future debt crises, end austerity, create a progressive tax system and tackle climate change. We pledge to stand together and make our values and demands visible everywhere, so that every government feels the urgent pressure to act.

Here’s what we’re fighting for:

1. Cancel the Debt: End the debt crisis today by cancelling unsustainable and illegitimate debts — no strings attached — and requiring rich countries to pay their climate debts to support communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

2. Change the System: Transform the outdated, rigged financial system with a fair, democratic and transparent one under the United Nations — including a binding debt framework and international tax convention. Everyone deserves a voice in shaping the future, not just a few billionaires.

3. Choose Hope and Justice: Debt cancellation cannot be done in isolation. To build just economies we must (a) tax the super-rich and large corporations to curb inequality, (b) guarantee public services including health care, education, and social protection for all, and

(c) accelerate a just transition for people and planet, including a fair, equitable and timebound transition away from fossil fuels as well as the protection of biodiversity and community livelihoods.

The Time to Change the Financial System is Now

Economic, social and climate justice go hand in hand.

But the clock is ticking. With only five years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, we’re failing. At this rate, ending poverty will take 230 years—but the world’s first trillionaire could emerge in less than a decade.

Dating from ancient times, the Jubilee was created to stop inequality from being passed from one generation to the next. Let’s provide hope for billions in the Year of the Jubilee.

This is not a time to be defined by tyranny, oligarchy, exploitation, and greed. Instead, we are defined by our courage to fight for justice, our solidarity and a determination to build a just and equitable world. This is the moment to resist — and win.

We will rewrite the rules. We will change the system. We choose Hope and Justice — for Billions, Not Billionaires.

About Our Movement

We are a Global South-led movement comprised of civil society networks, trade unions, activists and academics, grounded in our joint values of inclusion and solidarity, united for economic justice. Our collective mobilization engages policy makers, political leaders and the public at national and international levels to drive systemic change.

There are a series of key international meetings this year that can make this hope a reality:

 -4th Financing for Development conference in Sevilla, Spain, 30 June – 3 July 2025

 -World Social Summit in Doha, Qatar, 4-6 November 2025

 -Climate COP30 in Belém, Brazil, 10-21 November 2025

 -G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, 22-23 November 2025

 

Name of Organisers

1. Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) (Coordination)

2.Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF)

3.Global Forum on Communities Discriminated by Work and Descent (GFoD)

4.Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development (APSD)

5.Asia Democracy Network (ADN)

6.Asia Development Alliance (ADA)

7.People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), Asia Chapter

8.OXFAM-Asia

9.South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)

10.ActionAid International – Asia Region

11.APCASO

12.LDC Watch

13.Asia People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)

14.Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC)

15.Empower India

16.National Campaign For Sustainable Development (NACASUD-Nepal)

17.Wada Na Todo Abhiyan

18.NGO Federation of Nepal

19.Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)

20.Noakhali Rural Development Society, Bangladesh

21.Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organisation (SUNFO)

22.Sanayee Development Organisation, Afghanistan

23.Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA)

24.ONE Singapore

25.Africa Japan Forum

26.Cooperation Committee of Cambodia (CCC)

27.Jarangan Indonesia Positif (JIP)