Africa and Arab countries

The Council of Global Unions strongly denounces the ill-conceived decision of a number of UN Member States not to sign the historic agreement on 10 December 2018, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).

“Building walls, building fences, is not a solution […] the issue is how we can receive these people with fairness, with justice, with equity,” says PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli in her opening speech on the eve of the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakesh.

Today, 10 December, we celebrate International Human Rights Day and the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The health situation in Nigeria is similar to that in many other countries, where insufficient funding is allocated to environmental health and universal healthcare and people suffer as a consequence. Femi Abolade, an Environmental Health Officer and a member of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria, denounces the situation not only in his country but across all continents.

The Government Services Employees Association of Mauritius (GSEA) organised a Health Day on 9 August 2018 at the GSEA headquarters in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life. It was an awareness-raising programme, with a huge participation of members of the Association and the public.

Since November this year, PSI has become a member of the Equal Pay International Coalition-EPIC. Among the 15 members, PSI is the second global union federation taking action as a member of EPIC to reduce the gender pay gap.

PSI Global Labour Remunicipalisation workshop is taking place at the ILO in Geneva from 4-5 December. Trade union affiliates from around the world are showcasing local experiences of remunicipalisation and giving union strategies to bring public services back in-house.

A PSI African and Arab Countries’ trade union delegation took part for the first time in AFRICITIES 2018, the eighth edition of the largest regional mayors' and local authorities gathering that took place in Marrakech, Morocco, on 20-24 November 2018. Organized by the African chapter of the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), it was held under the theme of “The transition to sustainable cities and territories: the role of local and subnational governments of Africa”.