PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPORT CONCERNING PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN WATER, SANITATION

PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPORT CONCERNING PRIVATE SECTOR

PARTICIPATION IN WATER, SANITATION

The final report of the six-month Global Water Scoping Process was launched this evening at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations.

The report is entitled “Final Report of the Global Water Scoping Process:  Is there a case for a global multi-stakeholder review of private sector participation in water and sanitation?”

Penny Urquhart, co-moderator of the Process, said that more than 90 per cent of the 300 stakeholders interviewed felt that a review was either essential or desirable in order to reduce controversy surrounding the subject and accelerate implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.

She said the subject of private sector participation had been generating controversy for the last two decades.  The polarization had become extremely apparent following the Bonn Freshwater Conference held in September 2001 and had led to a stalemate regarding how to meet the needs of the 1 billion people in the world who lacked access to clean and safe water and the 2.4 billion lacking access to sanitation.

A multi-stakeholder working group comprising six organizers had then come together to initiate the Global Water Scoping Process, she said.  The Process was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and through the German technical cooperation agency GTZ.

Co-moderator Deborah Moore said the Process had tried to engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including people not normally involved in international policy arenas.  It had encountered perspectives reflecting the major fault lines in private sector participation.  Those questions included its impact on poor communities and the appropriateness of profiting from delivery of public services.  A workshop would be held in Berlin on 23 and 24 June to receive stakeholder reaction to the report.

Richard Aylard, director of corporate social responsibility at TWE Thames Water, which delivers water and sanitation in about 20 countries, including Indonesia and Thailand, said there was an overwhelming case for a review because there was so much heat in the debate and so little light.  It was clear that, in all the controversy, the only people guaranteed were those without access to water and sanitation.

David Boys, a utilities officer with Public Services International, a global federation of 600 unions and 20 million public service workers, said its members had found that decisions were being made by international organizations that were often not accountable and not transparent.  Those decisions affected them, their work and their families.  Any review, if carefully and broadly done, could bring out new information even if consensus was not immediately achieved.

Asked whether the Process could be the foundation for future private sector roles in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, Mr. Boys replied that the question of a multi-stakeholder process was important in itself.  It could involve all stakeholders and balance out institutions or organizations that had a lot of resources and that could sponsor good research against others that were unrepresented and voiceless.  However, while there were indications of the need for a review and of how to go about it, there were no solid outcomes on which to form a judgment.

Ms. Urquhart said one question that had been frequently put to the working group had been how the Process would be different from those that had gone before.

Mr. Aylard said that the inherently slow, messy and unpredictable nature of such processes made what they produced all the more valuable.  The final outcome received a proper examination by all those concerned, rather than by a select few.  There was much experience to draw on, which would be helpful in the design of a new system.  Second, water affected everyone and was inherently a subject that lent itself to a multi-stakeholder process, rather than concerning just one sector of society.

Regarding how a review could influence policies, bilateral donors and international financial institutions, Mr. Boys said the World Bank was currently reviewing its history of privatization and market-based solutions in the water sector.  Having the multiplicity of views and dealing with issues like regulation, the impact on service provision to the poor and alternative finance mechanisms currently being designed by the Bank should help the institution in decision-making.

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