As we reach the end of a two-year project supported by the Ford Foundation, we held a reflection and learning workshop in Naivasha, Kenya. This collective learning initiative brought us together with organizations from Ecuador (Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales, CDES), South Africa (the Institute for Economic Justice, IEJ), Malaysia (International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, IWRAW AP), and Tunisia (L'Observatoire Tunisien de l'Economie, OTE), all working towards a common goal: to rethink and improve the way global financial systems work, offering rights-based solutions.
Originally aimed at finding better ways to recover from COVID-19, the project grew to tackle bigger questions about transforming the architecture of the entire global financial system. The need for such change is widely recognized, and our collective effort focused on creating a fairer system that respects human rights.
At our final workshop, we reviewed what we've achieved and discussed what we've learned. This wasn't just about celebrating our successes; it was also about understanding our challenges and planning for the future. One of our key achievements was coming up with a brief message that sums up our vision for a better global financial system – one that's fair, respects human rights, and takes care of the planet.
We spent a lot of time reflecting on our work and how we can share our insights and strategies with others. Looking ahead, we're excited about opportunities like the G20 C20 discussions, particularly as South Africa prepares to lead next year. We hope to use what we've learned this year through our work with the Initiative on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights to help our partners in South Africa and beyond.
As we move forward, we'll be focusing on turning the discussions from the workshop into plans and actions. We want to make sure our message reaches as many people as possible and helps create an agenda to drive real change. We're working on a shared resource to outline our future steps and how we can keep working together effectively, while also giving guidance to other activists working to reform our systems of global economic governance.
In short, the workshop in Kenya was a chance for us to reflect on our journey, celebrate our work, and plan for the future. It's been an eye-opening experience that showed us the importance of coming together, learning from each other, and pushing for a global financial system that works for everyone.