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Publications

Explore publications produced by us and in partnership with other organisations. Publications can be filtered by cross-disciplinary work, areas of intervention or by country, year of publication and type of document

Series: Public Services in Africa

Series: Public Services in Africa

State Obligations Under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the Context of Private Provision of Social Services

This publication highlights the historical shift from public to private provision of essential services like education and healthcare due to neoliberal policies, which has exacerbated inequalities. The report stresses the necessity for States to ensure access to quality public services, regulate private actors to prevent human rights abuses and maintain non-commercial, democratically accountable social services. It provides guidelines for State responsibilities, including funding, regulation and public participation, while warning against retrogressive measures and ensuring that private involvement does not undermine public service quality or accessibility.

Click here to access the publication (available in English and Spanish).

 

Healthcare Privatisation and Commercialisation in Ivory Coast: What Impact on the Right to Health?

This executive summary, which is based on a full report originally written in French by Dr. Stéphane Koffi Kouadjo and Amadou Dahou, from the non-profit organisation Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains (MIDH), explores the detrimental impacts of privatising healthcare on the right to health in Ivory Coast.

It highlights how commercialisation exacerbates inequalities, with socioeconomic status determining access to medical care. The publication, based on research in Bouaké, Cocody and Yopougon, reveals that a significant number of private health centres operate illegally and that the public healthcare system is underfunded, covering only 40% of healthcare needs. Discrimination against vulnerable groups, such as women and persons with disabilities, is prevalent due to inadequate facilities. The research underscores the necessity for the Ivorian government to enhance public healthcare funding, enforce stricter regulations on private providers and promote transparency to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare for all.

You can access the executive summary here and the full report (in French) here.

 

The Conceptualisation and Regulation of APBET Schools in Kenya: Applying the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education

This report explores the status and regulation of Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET) schools in Kenya, using the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education as a framework. It highlights the challenges faced by public education in Kenya, particularly in informal urban settlements, where private and non-formal education options, such as APBET schools, have proliferated. The report distinguishes between public and private education, outlining the state's obligations to provide free, high-quality public education and regulate private education. It discusses the legal and policy framework governing various types of schools in Kenya, including public, private, APBET and community (Harambee) schools, and recommends policy measures to improve access to quality education for all children.

Click here to access the publication.

 

Perception of Public Services: Nigeria - Lexia

This report, commissioned by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) and conducted by LEXIA, examines how Nigerians perceive public services, focusing on education and healthcare. Conducted through online group sessions in January 2024, the study explores the associations and beliefs people have about public services, the role of the private sector, and the relationship between these services and human rights. The findings highlight significant disparities and barriers in accessing quality public services, exacerbated by socioeconomic status and regional differences. The study reveals a strong preference for private services due to perceived higher quality and better treatment, despite higher costs. It also underscores the need for improved public service infrastructure, better compensation for service providers, and increased oversight to enhance accountability and service delivery.

Click here to access the publication.

 

Access to Healthcare in Côte d'Ivoire: A Participatory-Action Research

We have published a new executive summary: 'Access to Healthcare in Côte d'Ivoire: A Participatory-Action Research'. The publication discusses a research project on healthcare access in Gagnoa, Ivory Coast, carried out by the Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains with support from our organisation.

The study reveals that healthcare funding in Gagnoa largely relies on direct out-of-pocket payments, which disproportionately affect lower-income groups. This is exacerbated by the underimplementation of a national health insurance scheme intended to alleviate these financial burdens. Public healthcare facilities, while crucial for providing more affordable and specialised care, are hampered by resource shortages, inadequate staffing, and insufficient equipment. Conversely, the private healthcare sector is fragmented and inconsistent in quality, with many informal providers escaping necessary regulation, thus complicating access for economically disadvantaged groups.

The research team set up a community-led monitoring committee aimed at addressing these accountability issues and enhancing local advocacy efforts for healthcare rights.

Click here to access the publication.

 

The State of the Privatisation of Education in Francophone Africa

Since the 1980s, countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including French-speaking African countries, have been obliged to implement structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), managed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to resolve budgetary crises. The principal downside of these policies has been a drastic reduction in state funding allocated to essential public services such as education2. In the face of an exponential growth in demand for education , these decisions to reduce state funding for the education sector, along with other factors such as the introduction of flexible regulations favouring private actors, have contributed to an unprecedented growth in private actors in many countries around the world, notably those in francophone Africa.

However, the fact remains that the impact of the privatisation of education in the French-speaking African space is insufficiently documented. Against this background, and in order to increase the availability of data on the extent, impact and political responses to the growth of privatisation of education in French-speaking Africa, civil society organisations in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Madagascar have mobilised. These organisations carried out research, including the field data collection, between 2020 and 2022 in order to increase the availability of factual information on privatisation and its direct impact on the right to education in these four countries.

Click here to access the publication.

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Peer Learning for Care Societies: We Joined Regional Convening in Montevideo

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.