WHO WE ARE
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) is leading the longest-running debt campaign in the world. As the world’s oldest debt-watch monitor and as the only coalition in the world working on the Philippines’ debt problem, FDC is globally recognized as an authoritative organization on debt issues, generating solidarity and support from various NGOs, churches and solidarity networks around the world. As the longest-running coalition in the Asia Pacific, FDC is likewise recognized as a symbolic leader of Asian campaigners. FDC’s leadership on the transnational scene has made it an important player in forming and leading the current transnational efforts to combat the blight that onerous debt casts on underdeveloped and developing societies–an issue that has global causes and that cannot be sufficiently addressed at the local level.
Yet, despite its global perspective, FDC remains a multi-sectoral, non-sectarian and pluralist coalition of local civil society organizations, with wide and deep roots in contemporary Philippine politics and history. It is the broadest issue-based coalition of Left political formations working for Philippine social transformation, which includes the Philippines’ leading workers federation, women’s organizations, youth and students’ alliances, rural and urban poor people’s organizations, grassroots and community-based organizations, non-government organizations, and political blocs, as well as individuals in Congress, the academe, and the religious sector.
WHAT WE DO
For three decades, FDC has developed definite alternatives for national and human development, while campaigning against unjust and unsustainable neoliberal economic policies. FDC continues to consolidate an alternative economic agenda called the People’s Economy, a comprehensive and cohesive economic development framework that seeks radical social change, particularly in the role of women in the economy.
FDC more than recognizes the contribution of women to the economy; it sharpens the integration of feminist perspectives in all its programs and campaigns, and strengthens its support for alternatives directed towards women’s empowerment, especially with respect to reproductive and maternal healthcare, migration, and the proper valuation of reproductive work.
In the coming years, FDC will continue with its mandate as a campaign and resource center to conduct policy advocacy work and campaigns for social justice, strengthening social movements to address issues surrounding debt and public finance, the privatization of essential services (i.e. water and power), climate finance, and women and gender, and developing and institutionalizing socially just alternatives, such as the People’s Economy.
