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New Report: Over £30 million of UK aid money spent on funding body for privatisation consultants
Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) has channelled over £30 million of its aid through an institution designed to pay consultants to push privatisation in poor countries according to a report released today (Sunday 26 November 2006) by the World Development Movement. This compares, for example, to the £3.5 million DFID has pledged to spend over four years to help establish a new programme of support for higher education in Africa.
Documents released to WDM under Freedom of Information rules show that DFID was instrumental in creating a little known body called the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) in the late 1990s. Administered by the World Bank, and with over half its funding provided by DFID, PPIAF is involved in paying consultants to promote privatisation across a range of ‘infrastructure’ sectors, most notably water and sanitation.
The report, Down the Drain, highlights the use of UK aid money through PPIAF to fund so-called ‘consensus building’ activities, which aim to persuade domestic populations of the ‘benefits’ of privatisation.
WDM campaigner Vicky Cann said: “Last week, DFID announced its support for the human right to water. How on earth can DFID continue to justify its support for PPIAF and the spending of aid money to manipulate public opinion about water privatisation in developing countries? Provision of essential public services in poor countries is a legitimate subject of debate, a debate which shouldn’t be skewed by privatisation propaganda, funded by aid money. Can DFID honestly argue that this is the best use of UK aid money?”
The report reveals that, since 1999, DFID has funded water privatisation consultants working in a total of 37 countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia and contrasts the UK’s support for PPIAF’s privatisation consultants with the lack of targeted support to enable best practice to be shared between public utilities.
“Strong public water utilities across the developing world are delivering clean water to the poorest communities at an affordable price. We need to get out of the business of supporting privatisation and into the business of providing support where it’s needed and it can do the most good. And that’s the public sector. To help make the human right to water a reality, DFID should spend money on an international fund to enable public utilities to share advice and expertise on a not-for-profit basis,” said Vicky Cann.
The report recommends
- a halt to PPIAF funding for water and sanitation projects and all ‘consensus-building’ work
- the creation of a facility to exclusively support public sector capacity building or ‘public public partnerships’ in the water and sanitation sector.
ENDS
Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345, Email:
Information for editors
[1] Copies of the WDM report Down the Drain – how aid for water sector reform could be better spent can be obtained from:
www.wdm.org.uk/resources/reports/water/downthedrainreport26112006.pdf
[2] A media briefing that distils the main content of the report can be found at www.wdm.org.uk/resources/briefings/water/downthedrainbriefing11012007.pdf
[3] £5 million of DFID’s funding has been spent on PPIAF’s water and sanitation privatisation processes.
[4] Since PPIAF was created in 1999, it has funded one or more processes aimed at developing private sector participation and / or privatisation in water and sanitation services in a total of 37 countries. These countries are Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
[5] The UK is the single largest donor to PPIAF contributing over £30 million ($58 million) between 1999 and 2005, with a further £15 million committed through to 2008. This equates to 54 per cent of PPIAF’s total funding. Since 1999, PPIAF has spent between 18 and 22 per cent of its funding in the water and sanitation sector; the UK has proportionally funded as much as £5 million of this water privatisation work.
[6] In at least 16 countries, PPIAF has sought to ‘build consensus’ for water privatisation projects. ‘Building consensus’ refers to activities that promote the benefits of privatisation or particular privatisation options and/or attempt to persuade sceptical members of governments, parliaments, business, trade unions, civil society and citizens that privatisation is in their interests. Arguably it is pro-privatisation propaganda.
[7] In at least 17 of the countries in which PPIAF has worked on water privatisation, donors have made their support conditional on privatisation.
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