SAAPE’S ENGAGEMENT IN THE GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY MOBILISATION DURING THE IMF–WORLD BANK ANNUAL MEETINGS
The International People’s Assembly opened in Bangkok on 12 October 2026, bringing together civil society organisations, social movements, trade unions and people’s organisations to develop a common response to the policies and power structures underpinning the current global economic and financial system. The Assembly was convened by the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) together with a broad coalition of national, regional and global organisations and networks.The Assembly provided an important space for participants to connect struggles across countries and sectors and to develop collective demands around debt cancellation, tax justice, climate justice, public services, gender equality and democratic global economic governance.
For SAAPE, the Assembly was an important platform for bringing the experiences of South Asian communities into a wider Global South discussion. The region continues to face the combined pressures of high debt, unequal taxation, limited fiscal space, inadequate social protection and increasingly severe climate-related disasters. SAAPE emphasised that these challenges cannot be addressed separately. Debt, tax, climate and gender justice are closely interconnected, and responses to one crisis should not deepen another.