What are public services?
A public service is provided to the community by government usually with public funds that is essential to ensure people’s human rights and ensure they are able to have a basic standard of living. As an essential service it is not run with the intention to make profit. Public services include the provision of sanitation and water, energy, health care, care services, education, transport, infrastructure, social protection, internet and justice.
Why are public services essential for women’s rights?
Public services play a critical role in ensuring women’s human rights are met. Properly and publicly funded, gender-responsive public services can challenge patriarchal structures that drive gender inequality and are key to redistribute unpaid care work. For example having publicly funded sanitation and water available to all, removes the need for girls to spend hours collecting water. Globally girls currently spend 200 million hours a day collecting 71% of water used in families[1]. The time saved in having publicly funded sanitation and water would mean girls are able to spend that time in education and reduces the risk of them experiencing violence.
Womankind and partner work
Public services are an essential tool in supporting women and girls to achieve their rights, yet round the world we are seeing a shift to public private partnerships (PPP) as a means of providing these essential services. Private corporations are primarily focused on making profit, meaning costs are often cut leading to reduced quality services[2], introduction of fees meaning services are not accessible, and lower accountability to users – all of which undermine human rights. This is why a fair distribution of resources is necessary and tax justice plays a key role in redirecting resources to provide public services.
Womankind and our partners work to advocate for free and accessible public services provided by the state for all women. We advocate on an international level and demand structural change that recognises the unpaid care work that women and girls undertake and seeks to redistribute the work through gender-responsive public services. We continue to call on governments to reduce the time burden on women and girls that act as a barrier to them realising their full economic rights.
Womankind is a part of the Women’s Global Strike to demand systemic change and recognition, remuneration, redistribution and representations for all the work women do.
[1] http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/women-spend-40-billion-hours-collecting-water/
[2] http://www.world-psi.org/en/advancing-womens-human-rights-through-gender-responsive-public-services
