Africa & Arab countries

The Ebola crisis in West Africa demonstrates clearly the threat posed to societies as a whole when quality public health systems are absent. The dire consequences of the outbreak must be seen, in general, as symptoms resulting from decades of lack of investments in public sector health systems. PSI's strategy, focussed on a trade union response to the crisis, is available for download.

PSI’s Global Trade in Services Forum, From GATS to TISA, held in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network, held on 17 October 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland, is the first ever global conference to provide a critical perspective on the TISA.

This new report on trade, written by Ellen Gould, was launched by PSI and Our World is not For Sale (OWINFS) at a Global Trade Summit in Washington, D.C., on 15-17 September 2014.

The Municipal Services Project (MSP) is a research project that explores alternatives to the privatization and commercialization of service provision in electricity, health, water and sanitation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is composed of academics, labour unions, non-governmental organizations, social movements and activists from around the globe who are committed to analyzing successful alternative service delivery models to under- stand the conditions required for their sustainability and reproducibility.

A new 122-page ITUC legal report, confirming that the right to strike is protected under international law, as employers try to overturn decades of jurisprudence at the International Labour Organisation.

World Public Services Day - 23 June 2014
From the south to the north, Public Services International affiliate unions are working together across borders to end tax havens, tax avoidance and corruption, and to bring in progressive tax systems that are properly resourced and enforced. Tax justice enables public spending for the common good, and provides the means for economic self-sufficiency for municipal, regional and national governments.

This report covers the first year of PSI’s work to implement the comprehensive five year plan adopted by delegates to the 2012 PSI Congress in Durban, South Africa. In the context of very difficult times for public services unions, our delegates laid plans to work for alternatives to privatisation, promote quality public services, fight inequality, and strengthen the trade union movement.