Mission Impossible: Development without Public Services
Monday 13 July 2015, 6:15 – 7:45 pm, Hilton Hotel, Ibex & Nyala, Addis Ababa
Abstract
The provision of universally accessible quality public services contributes to the reduction of hunger, poverty and inequality, the expansion of Decent Work and enhances social integration and cohesion. However, privatisation is about to become official UN policy. Despite concerns regarding the human rights and social justice impacts, there is a great push for private financing and private sector participation to fund public services within the FFD3 agenda.
Experience with public-private partnerships (PPPs) shows that privatisation is fundamentally flawed. PPPs in countries both rich and poor show that these are an expensive and inefficient way of financing infrastructure and services, since they conceal public borrowing, while providing long-term state guarantees for profits to private companies. The event aims to raise concerns on PPPs in health, education, water and sanitation and propose alternative policy options that are more compatible with social development.
Additional information here
Organisers
Public Services International, ActionAid International, Action contre la Faim, Global Alliance for Tax Justice, ICRICT, Oxfam International, Pax Romana, part of the International Co-ordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO), The Blue Planet Project, TUDCN
Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) MECHANISM 