Building Economies that Deliver: Care, Public Services, and Shared Prosperity - 29 April

This plenary will highlight practical approaches that strengthen the systems people rely on and expand economic agency Across regions, governments prioritize military spending, debt repayments, and the interests of the ultra-wealthy over long-term investment in public services and social systems. As funding for health, education, and community support disappears, girls and women disproportionately carry the burden of care work, limiting their ability to take part in education, paid work, and public life. These are not inevitable outcomes, but the result of political and economic choices about whose well-being is valued, what gets funded, and which systems are allowed to fail. This session looks at what it would take to make different choices. It highlights practical approaches that strengthen the systems people rely on and expand economic agency, reframes care and public services as core parts of a healthy economy, identifies actionable fiscal tools governments can use, and shares examples of regenerative economic models already in practice.