Risk Awareness with PPPs

  • Eurodad issued a briefing paper on negative impacts of PPPs, focusing on their promotion by the World Bank Group, while a briefing paper from Global Policy Watch stresses the need for responsible promotion of partnerships undertaken by the UN Development System (UNDS).
  • The 2030 Reflection Group asserts that privatization and PPPs "involve disproportionate risks and costs for the public sector and can even exacerbate inequalities, decrease equitable access to essential services and jeopardize the fulfilment of human rights.”
  • On infrastructure, the organizations call on development banks to stop the “aggressive promotion and incentivizing of PPPs,” recognize the risks that PPPs can pose, and support countries in finding the best financing method. On public services, they encourage prioritizing domestic resources, and stress the need for high-quality, publicly-funded, democratically-controlled, accountable public services: “the wellbeing of our communities and societies depends on it.”
  • In addition, the 2030 Reflection Group issued its 2017 report on the theme, ‘Reclaiming the public (policy) space for the SDGs: Privatization, partnerships, corporate capture and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.’ Jens Martens of Global Policy Forum observes that some argue that the private sector is the most efficient way to provide the necessary means for implementing the SDGs. However, “many studies and experiences by affected communities have shown that privatization and PPPs involve disproportionate risks and costs for the public sector and can even exacerbate inequalities, decrease equitable access to essential services and jeopardize the fulfilment of human rights.” He calls to strengthen public finance in order to reduce corporate influence over people’s lives. 

Click http://sdg.iisd.org/news/policy-groups-call-for-risk-awareness-with-ppps/ link to open resource.