![]() |
![]() ![]() |
View previous stories | |
The deterioration in the situation of Afghan women and girls by UN News, OHCHR, UNICEF, agencies Afghanistan Aug. 2023 On 15 August 2021, everything changed for women and girls in Afghanistan. First came the curbs on girls’ education and women’s right to work, then the enforcement of strict dress codes and impositions on women’s freedom of movement and access to public life. Two years after their takeover of Afghanistan, through more than 50 edicts, orders, and restrictions, the Taliban have systematically imposed a set of meticulously constructed policies of inequality that impact every part of a woman’s life, that regulate where a woman can go and how she should dress. UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous: It is now two years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, during which time it has imposed the most comprehensive, systematic, and unparalleled assault on the rights of women and girls. Through over 50 edicts, orders and restrictions, the Taliban have left no aspect of women’s lives untouched, no freedom spared. They have created a system founded on the mass oppression of women that is rightly and widely considered gender apartheid. Afghan women have told me and the world about the ways in which these actions are misguided, cruel and ultimately self-defeating. They lessen the women and girls of Afghanistan, and the people of Afghanistan who are robbed of their contribution. This most blatant violation of basic rights to which the international community has unambiguously proclaimed its commitment is a harm to every one of us across the human family. These are our sisters. They are suffering. We cannot and must not accept this. It must end now. Despite these challenges, Afghan women tell me that they will not give up or give in. They will continue to lead the struggle against their oppression. In the face of the most hostile of circumstances they speak out against the violations, deliver lifesaving services and run women’s organizations. Their bravery must inspire us to greater action, their example to renewed determination. I call on all actors to join us in supporting Afghan women in every way, elevating their voices, priorities, and recommendations, funding the services they so desperately need, supporting their businesses and organizations. I urge the international community to continue to apply every pressure and employ every means at their disposal to press for change, including by answering the call of the humanitarian community and fully funding the humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan. I urge the Taliban to reconsider and to weigh the cost of these acts for Afghanistan’s present and future. http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2023/08/statement-on-afghanistan-by-un-women-executive-director-sima-bahous http://www.educationcannotwait.org/news-stories/press-releases/two-years-afghan-girls-call-the-heart-claim-their-right-education-rings http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/10/afghanistan-repression-worsens-2-years-taliban-rule http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/taliban-edicts-suffocating-women-and-girls-afghanistan-un-experts http://reliefweb.int/country/afg * After August: A collection of stories documenting the lives of Afghan women is a collaboration between UN Women Afghanistan, Zan Times, Limbo and independent storytellers: http://www.afteraugust.org/ Aug. 2023 (OCHA) The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that aid operations in the country face a critical funding gap as humanitarian needs remain severe. More than halfway through the year, the appeal to help more than 21 million people across the country is less than 25 percent funded. We face critical funding gaps amounting to $1.3 billion, with many programmes already ended or considerably scaled back due to insufficient resources and aid pipelines at risk of imminent rupture, including for food assistance. Due to lack of funding, the World Food Programme (WFP) had to cut 8 million food-insecure Afghans from receiving assistance entirely. Additionally, 1.4 million new and expecting mothers, toddlers and preschoolers are no longer receiving foods designed to prevent malnutrition. From July onwards, only 5 million people will receive emergency food assistance when 15 million people in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 and 4 do not know where their next meal will come from. Ration sizes have been reduced and those families in IPC 4 areas now receive one-third less assistance than before. If no new funding is received, emergency food assistance by WFP will shrink to nothing by the end of October. In addition, nutrition partners also reported that due to funding shortfalls, 25 mobile health and nutrition teams (MHNTs) in four provinces have been shut down. The affected provinces include Nuristan, Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar. The closure of these teams means that more than 100,000 people will not have access to basic health and nutrition care services across the Eastern region. By June this year, only 9 per cent of the $4.6 billion required for Afghanistan's initial Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) had been received. In addition, 90 per cent of the expenditure in the first five months of the year, that is approximately $850 million, relied on carryover funds from 2022. In response to the changing operating environment and based on what had been delivered during the first five months of the year, humanitarians released a revised appeal that outlines $2.26 billion on unmet requirements between June and December this year. Even with a revised humanitarian appeal, the HRP remains currently only 14 per cent funded. In the health sector, an estimated 7.6 million people will lack access to essential life-saving health assistance if funding levels, presently below a quarter of the requirements, remain the same. More than 31,500 households with severely malnourished children have already missed out on critical integrated cash packages for nutrition due to underfunding. The education sector faces potential discontinuation of approximately 2,800 community-based classes, impacting 83,000 children, 59 per cent of whom are girls, who have only gained access to education in the past year after the Taliban take over. Insufficient funding in the WASH sector means that approximately 2.6 million people now lack access to safe drinking water, 1.5 million are missing out on hygiene promotion, 1.6 million lack essential nonfood items, and 844,000 are exposed to poor sanitation. At the start of June 2023, critical supplies for Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items, WASH and food such as pulses, wheat flour and vegetable oil are at risk of pipeline break due to funding gaps. Moreover, the end of the year brings another harsh winter, which many cannot survive without assistance including warm clothing and blankets, essential medical treatment and food aid. Timely funding is crucial to enable aid agencies to procure and deliver core supplies, address border delays and market disruptions, and pre-position relief items in highly affected areas. http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-humanitarian-update-june-2023 http://www.unocha.org/afghanistan http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/09/25/afghanistan-international-aid-cut-healthcare http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/wfp-afghanistan-forced-drop-10-million-people-lifesaving-assistance-deepening-despair-and-worry-afghans http://www.nrc.no/news/2023/august/the-people-of-afghanistan-need-sustainable-solutions-to-avoid-catastrophe/ http://www.rescue.org/press-release/two-years-taliban-took-power-afghanistan-almost-30-million-people-remain-dire-need http://www.savethechildren.net/news/more-third-children-surveyed-afghanistan-pushed-child-labour-country-marks-two-years-taliban http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-humanitarian-update-june-2023 http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/humanitarian-coordinator-appeals-world-not-abandon-people-afghanistan-precarious-moment-endaripashto http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1156185/?iso3=AFG http://www.unicef.org/afghanistan/ Mar. 2022 Afghanistan is running out of food, an upcoming pledging conference is a rare chance to save millions of lives in the country, writes Mary Ellen McGroarty country director for Afghanistan at the UN World Food Programme. Last week, the women and girls of Afghanistan were dealt another low blow when their hopes to return to secondary school were dashed. Seven months after the withdrawal of foreign forces, collapse of the government, takeover by the Taliban and economic paralysis, their one hope remaining has been ruined. More than half of the 23 million people in Afghanistan suffering acute food insecurity are women and girls. They are suffering the immeasurable and inhumane physical and mental burden of hunger and discrimination. Adolescent girls are locked out of school, women are unable to work. They rightly wonder if they are being punished even though they have had so little say in their fate. In advance of the UN pledging conference on Afghanistan, to be held on March 31, I urge the international community to reassure the women and girls of Afghanistan that they have not been left to fend for themselves. Support the UN to alleviate the dreadful suffering of hunger with levels of resources commensurate to the needs. Support us to keep women and girls’ dreams and voices alive. Support us by boosting livelihoods and resilience programmes, nutrition, education and school meals; programmes shaped in and owned by the communities for their communities. These are programmes that bring hope and potential and with this the possibility of a pathway to stability and prosperity, a peace dividend for Afghanistan and all its people equally. Since August 2021, we have witnessed a crisis of unprecedented scale and depth engulf Afghanistan and its people. Widespread hunger has gripped the country with equal severity in rural and urban areas. Mothers across the country are witnessing their young children fall ill to malnutrition. I met many of these mothers sitting at the edge of an overcrowded bed in overcrowded hospital wards praying that their children would pull through. They are mothers struggling to understand how peace after so many decades of war could be like this. In February, almost 400,000 children under the age of five have been treated for malnutrition, up from 150,000 in January. I've met many mothers in overcrowded hospital wards praying that their children would pull through. Afghanistan is, sadly, home to the highest percentage of widows in the world. It is estimated that there are over 700,000 of them, according to the Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey published by the country’s previous government. Women, young and old, struggle to raise a family alone – the price of war, the price of inhumanity. Many young, educated women are the only bread winners in their households. These women, mothers and daughters – often the heads of their households – are impacted most by the nexus of economic shocks, drought and ideological barbarity. The UN World Food Programme’s most recent rapid food security assessment found that female-headed households are struggling the most. Many of these households (85 per cent) are resorting to drastic measures to feed their families, compared to 62 per cent for male-headed households. With each passing month of the crisis, incomes continue to drop, diet quality decreases and the amount of food consumed at household level reduces. Nowruz, the new solar year and the first day of spring, was celebrated on March 21. With spring comes new life and crop seeds bursting through the earth, growing and maturing before the harvest, which is expected in June and July. The harvest is still three months way, and it will bring some relief for those fortunate enough to have access to seeds. But much of it is already mortgaged, as households borrow against it to feed their families. The humanitarian crisis is not over, as there has been no let-up on the economic crisis. Yes, the discussions and debates on Afghanistan are complex and challenging, no more so than after the events of recent days. We must and will continue to advocate and challenge for the rights of women and girls. The young girls turned away from school last week and the rest of the children of Afghanistan must be allowed to flourish and grow for sake of the country. The international community cannot and must not reduce its support to the people of Afghanistan. The WFP continues to scale up its programmes across country. The world must help us push back the scourge of hunger and malnutrition to save lives. It must help us continue with critical resilience and school meals programmes to change lives for the wellbeing and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan. “You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise”. I hope the words of the wonderful woman and poet Maya Angelou might yet prove true for the women and girls of Afghanistan. http://www.wfp.org/stories/hunger-education-girls-and-why-wfps-work-afghanistan-critical http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114482 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/girls-afghanistan-must-go-back-school-without-any-further-delays http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/03/failure-adhere-commitments-re-open-schools-all-girls-deeply-disappointing-and http://malala.org/newsroom/archive/malala-fund-condemns-talibans-decision-to-keep-afghan-girls-schools-closed http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/22/afghanistan-reopening-girls-schools-needs-watching http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2022/04/20/afghanistans-empty-womens-shelters http://www.wfp.org/emergencies/afghanistan-emergency http://unocha.exposure.co/nine-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-situation-in-afghanistan-right-now http://www.acaps.org/country/afghanistan/crisis/complex-crisis http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/04/afghanistan-economic-crisis-underlies-mass-hunger Jan. 2022 Afghanistan: Taliban attempting to steadily erase women and girls from public life. (OHCHR) Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are institutionalizing large scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, a group of UN human rights experts said today. The experts reiterated their alarm expressed since August 2021 at a series of restrictive measures that have been introduced since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, particularly those concerning women and girls. “Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices,” the experts said. “We are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country.” These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan, they added. The experts also noted the increased risk of exploitation of women and girls including of trafficking for the purposes of child and forced marriage as well as sexual exploitation and forced labor. These exclusionary and discriminatory policies are being enforced through a wave of measures such as barring women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transport on their own, as well as imposing a strict dress code on women and girls. “In addition to severely limiting their freedom of movement, expression and association, and their participation in public and political affairs, these policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said. “Women heads of households are especially hard hit, with their suffering compounded by the devastating consequences of the humanitarian crisis in the country.” Of particular and grave concern is the continued denial of the fundamental right of women and girls to secondary and tertiary education, on the premise that women and men have to be segregated and that female students abide by a specific dress code. As such, the vast majority of girls’ secondary schools remain closed and the majority of girls who should be attending grades 7-12 are being denied access to school, based solely on their gender. “Today, we are witnessing the attempt to steadily erase women and girls from public life in Afghanistan including in institutions and mechanisms that had been previously set up to assist and protect those women and girls who are most at risk,” the experts said in reference to the closure of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the physical occupation of the premises of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. “Various vital, and sometimes lifesaving, service providers supporting survivors of gender-based violence have shut down for fear of retribution, as have many women’s shelters, with potentially fatal consequences for the many victims in need of such services.” Other efforts aimed at dismantling systems designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence have included discontinuing specialized courts and prosecution units responsible for enforcing the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and preventing many women aid and social workers from being able to fully perform their jobs and assist other women and girls. While these measures have affected women and girls of all spheres of life, the experts highlighted their particular concerns for women human rights defenders, women civil society activists and leaders, women judges and prosecutors, women in the security forces, women that were former government employees, and women journalists, all of whom have been considerably exposed to harassment, threats of violence and sometimes violence, and for whom civic space had been severely eroded. Many have been forced to leave the country as a result. “We are also deeply troubled by the harsh manner with which the de facto authorities have responded to Afghan women and girls claiming their fundamental rights, with reports of peaceful protesters having been often beaten, ill-treated, threatened, and in confirmed instances detained arbitrarily,” the experts said. “We are also extremely disturbed by the reports of extrajudicial killings and forced displacement of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Hazara, which would suggest deliberate efforts to target, ban, and even eliminate them from the country.” The experts reiterated their call to the international community to step up urgently needed humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people, and the realization of their right to recovery and development. The financial and humanitarian crisis has been particularly devastating for groups in situations of heightened vulnerability within the Afghan population, particularly women, children, minorities and female-headed households. At the same time, the international community must continue to hold the de facto authorities accountable for continuous violations of the rights of half of the Afghan society and to ensure that restrictions on women and girl’s fundamental rights are immediately removed. “Any humanitarian response, recovery or development efforts in the country are condemned to failure if female staff, women-led organizations, and women in general - particularly those from minority communities - continue to be excluded from full participation in the needs assessments as well as in the decision-making, design, implementation and monitoring of these interventions,” the experts said. http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5321-situation-women-and-girls-afghanistan-report-special-rapporteur http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2022/08/statement-meticulously-constructed-policies-of-inequality-afghanistan-one-year-on http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2022/08/in-focus-women-in-afghanistan-one-year-after-the-taliban-takeover http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/depriving-girls-secondary-education-translates-loss-least-us500-million-afghan http://unama.unmissions.org/unama-statement-hijab-directive-taliban-authorities http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2022/05/statement-on-afghanistan-by-ms-sima-bahous-un-women-executive-director http://www.passblue.com/2022/02/15/meanwhile-in-afghanistan-women-are-suffering-needlessly-this-winter/ Visit the related web page |
|
Our Future is Public by GI-ESCR, PSI, Eurodad, agencies "Our Future is Public or There will be No Future", says Rosa Pavanelli, General Secretary of Public Services International. Speech delivered to "Our Future is Public" international civil society conference held in Santiago, Chile in December 2022. "Our Future is Public" is a hopeful title and affirms the need to change the neoliberal economic model. Decades of austerity policies, cuts in public budgets, attacking and disqualifying the role of the public are the result of the global strategy of privatisation and financialisation of public services. During this period we have seen inequality, injustice and poverty grow between the richest and poorest countries, but also in each country the social gap has widened. The OECD tells us that access to public services represents more than 64% of disposable income for people living in the least developed countries and we know that they are a fundamental factor in the redistribution of wealth. Guaranteeing universal access to education, health, care, water and sanitation, and energy is the role of the state so that everyone can enjoy basic human rights and escape poverty, which can only be achieved through quality public services. The COVID 19 pandemic, which we are struggling to live with, has clearly shown us that without quality public services there is no way out of the emergency. The impact of climate change manifests itself every day with extreme natural events that determine continuous emergencies that the market does not know how to, cannot and does not want to solve. On the contrary, the market is responsible for the growing social injustice and cannot be an actor in the decision-making process we need to get out of the multiple crises - health, climate, economic, social and political - in which we are still trapped. In fact "Our Future is Public" is a compromising title because it also means that we want to return to the fundamental principles of democracy, to the responsibility of the state in defending and valuing the commons, in defining priorities in the general interest and in promoting economic growth oriented towards social and human development, towards collective progress rather than economic growth that exploits labour and natural resources without respect for people and the planet. In a word, an end to the extractive greed that has led us into a structural and systemic crisis. The harmful influence of multinational interests is the cause of the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few and the increase in social injustice. When public services are commodified, when not a value but a price is set on education, health, water and more, the commodification of human rights and ultimately of the human being is affirmed. Therefore, a public future has to put an end to the co-optation of public power for big economic interests, for neo-liberal capitalism. And restore the role of democratic governance to international and national institutions. To put an end to tax havens, to impose a global minimum tax on the profits of multinationals and on wealth. Define industrial production plans that respond to the needs of the communities we live in, that end the exploitation of workers and natural resources to redress the failure of global supply chains, demonstrated in the pandemic and today represented by the threat of famine due to the war in Ukraine. A guiding public role in the energy policy we need to save the planet. A public role in the protection of sensitive data in the digital transition without which the risk of entrusting the hands of the powerful oligopoly of multinationals in the sector with immense power is the real threat to democracy. A new idea of development where care is recognised as a human right and a public responsibility, where the social organisation of care is the key to ending gender inequality, to affirming the social recognition and value of care, its redistribution in the home and in society, its remuneration in terms of a living wage for workers in the sector and the valuation of its contribution to GDP, its representation at different levels of society. "Our Future is Public" also means transparency in public management through democratic participation of citizens, of civil society, a participation in which we have to define rules of representativeness without which particular interests prevail. Finally, let me say that among the subjects to be valued in this process of progressive transformation of society are the public service workers and their trade unions. For years accused of being to blame for public debt, insulted as unproductive and a cost to society. Or, conversely, celebrated as heroes during the pandemic or every time they sacrifice their lives to face emergencies to help the population, only to be forgotten once the crisis has been resolved. The truth is that public workers are the backbone of quality public services, they are the guardians of the independence and impartiality of the public system, they are the radar that first perceives changes in society. They are the workers who manufacture human rights. The alliance that we want to consolidate in this forum has to affirm that public service workers deserve decent conditions and wages, they deserve trade union rights in all countries, because trade union rights are human rights. The active participation of public workers, of their trade unions, is essential in an alliance that wants to build a more just and sustainable world. And we are here to continue marching together. * For more coverage of the "Our Future is Public" conference see: http://bit.ly/3P6b2Sm Global Initiative for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights: The "Our Future is Public" Conference gathered social movements, trade unions and civil society organisations from all over the world in Santiago, Chile for a 4-day Conference aiming at developing strategies to strengthen public services for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. This meeting follows a growing mobilisation around the world, at the grassroot and at the national level, locally and across borders, in rural and urban areas in support of the essentail role of the State in the provision of public services for all citizens. Convened by 50 organisations, GI-ESCR had a leading role in the organisation of the conference, organising meetings focused on health. Public healthcare services are vital to realise the human right to mental and physical health. However, commercial approaches to healthcare delivery, governance and financing are growing throughout the global health policy discourse. Commercialisation in health can be defined as the growth of a phenomenon where market mechanisms to the healthcare sector gain a private benefit, including health services, to make a profit. This threatens progress toward implementing the appropriate conditions and infrastructure necessary to realise the right to health. Civil society, unions and researchers advocating for the realisation of the right to health through strong, resilient public healthcare services are acting globally to illustrate the negative impacts of current upward trends leading to marketisation, financialisaton and commercialisation of healthcare and create strategies to invert them wherever possible. The problem is of sufficient importance that the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, indicated that she is “considering an examination of the role played by the privatization of health-care services – including public-private partnerships, financial aid and philanthropy – in attaining universal health coverage” in a report setting out “strategic priorities of work” for her mandate. The movement for public health services and against commercialization of health has been growing and new evidence has emerged over recent years. Recent research and advocacy in countries such as Uganda, India, Kenya, Nigeria, the U.S. and Italy has shown how privatisation and commercialisation of healthcare provision create health inequities and undermine human dignity and the right to health. Sharp inequalities in distribution and allocation of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines have laid bare the shortcomings of relying on privatised knowledge systems for medical research and development. When linked to private interests and profit-mechanisms, the system of medical knowledge innovation and research can be detrimental to people's lives and communities in most parts of the world and also undermine the enjoyment of the right to health. Health activists and advocates have formed a Consortium against the Commercialisation of Healthcare based on the shared values of advancing the right to health for all and strengthening public financing, delivery and governance of healthcare. http://www.gi-escr.org/our-future-is-public http://www.gi-escr.org/private-actors-public-services http://futureispublic.org/global-manifesto/ http://futureispublic.org/ http://peopleoverprof.it/resources/news/our-future-is-public-santiago-declaration-on-public-services?id=13578 Why Public-Private Partnerships are not the solution, report from Eurodad, agencies This is the second in a series of reports providing an in-depth analysis of various kinds of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) projects through seven case studies across different sectors, such as education, health, transport and water, and in countries like India, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Scotland and Spain. It also analyses emerging trends, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the multiple crises facing the world. Since the publication of our first report in the History RePPPeated series, the context for the continued promotion of PPPs has become even more complex and uncertain. In early 2020, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how market-based models cannot be relied upon to deliver on human rights such as health, education and water provision, and the fight against inequalities. In 2022, the upsurge in the cost of living, the energy crisis and the climate crisis have further highlighted the failures of the current economic model and the urgent need to build a different one. However, calls for an increasing role for the private sector in the financing of infrastructure and public services, and for PPPs in particular, continue to grow. Currently, PPPs are being promoted through a vast array of tools and by a wide range of institutions, including bilateral donor agencies, United Nations agencies and multilateral development banks (MDBs). The World Bank Group continues to be at the forefront of the promotion of PPPs, and of the use of private finance in development more generally. The rationale is that PPPs may help overcome challenges in the financing, implementation and delivery of infrastructure and public services, based on the assumption that the private sector brings additional finance, and that private companies are inherently more efficient than the public sector in delivering high-quality public services. This overlooks evidence that points to the contrary and the fact that decades of structural adjustment programmes and austerity policies have left public services underfunded. About this report In the seven case studies in this report, we find that PPPs have failed on many different levels, with serious negative impacts on the citizens of countries from Spain to Nepal. These impacts have risked compromising the fulfilment of fundamental rights, and undermining the fight against inequalities and climate change. At a very general level, our findings illustrate some of the most common problems PPPs are associated with. They illustrate the complexity of the PPP phenomenon, as part of the increasing financialisation of infrastructure and public service provision. This evidence raises serious red flags about the capacity of PPPs to deliver results in the public interest and calls for active civil society engagement in demanding a change of course. This joint CSO report raises a call to action to all concerned with justice, equality and sustainability. In the wake of multiple and interconnected crises, the promotion of PPPs is a false solution that needs to be challenged with a strong call for public services. The following policy recommendations align with civil society and trade union demands aimed at national governments and development finance institutions. They seek to influence discussions on the financing of infrastructure and public services at the national, regional and global levels. Recommendations • Halt the aggressive promotion and incentivising of PPPs. We call on UN Member States and the shareholders of the World Bank, the IMF, regional development banks and all development finance institutions (DFIs) to ensure that these institutions halt the aggressive promotion and incentivising of PPPs, with a particular emphasis on PPPs in social services – the right to health, education and water and sanitation cannot be subject to market practices, nor to people’s capacity to pay. • Public recognition of the fiscal and other significant risks that PPPs entail is essential and long overdue. We invite all United Nations Member States to recognise the poor developmental outcomes of PPPs, and we call on them to refrain from engaging in these financing arrangements. We also invite governments of developed countries – which are often overrepresented in the aforementioned international economic institutions – to ensure that these institutions effectively support the ownership of democratically-driven national plans in a way that is conducive to sustainable development. This means supporting countries to find the best financing method to deliver infrastructure and public services that are responsible, transparent, gender-sensitive, environmentally and fiscally sustainable and in line with countries’ human rights obligations and climate-related commitments. • Informed public consultations and broad civil society participation, including by local communities, trade unions and other stakeholders should always be pursued before any PPP in infrastructure and public service provision is agreed. This includes upholding the right to free, prior and informed consent, and ensuring the right to redress for any affected communities. • Apply rigorous government regulation of private actors and high transparency standards, especially in relation to accounting for public funds, the contract value of a PPP and its long-term fiscal implications for national accounts and project impacts. The public interest must be placed ahead of commercial interests. Contracts and performance reports of social and economic infrastructure projects should be proactively disclosed, and DFIs should not provide support to any projects unless transparency is guaranteed. It is vital to resist the increasing use of PPPs as a preferred financing tool to deliver infrastructure and public services. Instead, we call for the promotion of high-quality, publicly funded, democratically-controlled, gender-sensitive and accountable public services, based on the fulfillment of human rights and the protection of the environment. The future of our societies depends on it. http://www.eurodad.org/historyrepppeated2 http://policydialogue.org/publications/working-papers/end-austerity-a-global-report-on-budget-cuts-and-harmful-social-reforms-in-2022-25/ Visit the related web page |
|
View more stories | |
![]() ![]() ![]() |