Annex
CLEARING THE WATERS . . .
IS THERE A CASE FOR A MULTISTAKEHOLDER REVIEW
OF PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN WATER AND SANITATION?
Private Sector Participation (PSP) in water
and sanitation has been the subject of much controversy for years.
At the Bonn Freshwater Conference in December 2001 there was strong
support for a global review of the impact of PSP in water. In
her closing statement, the German Minister for Economic Cooperation
and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, welcomed the proposal
for "a stakeholder dialogue to review the issues linked
with privatisation because it could lead to a better understanding
of the successes and failures in this regard."
A working group, formed from organisations with
widely differing backgrounds and views on private sector participation,
has picked up the challenge and will explore the case for a Multistakeholder
Review. These organisations are:
— ASSEMAE (Brazilian association of
public water operators)
— Consumers International
— Environmental Monitoring Group (South
African advocacy NGO)
— Public Services International (International
labour federation)
— RWE Thames Water (Multinational water
services corporation)
— WaterAid (International development
NGO)
The scoping process is supported by GTZ (German
Agency for Development Cooperation).
Finding a resolution to the controversy around
PSP is an essential step towards achieving the Millennium Development
Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to water
by the year 2015, and the complementary WSSD goal relating to
sanitation.
The group has developed terms of reference and
commissioned two moderators to carry out a scoping process, to
be completed by March 2004. The moderators were chosen on the
basis of their experience in similar processes and their overall
competence to manage this delicate phase of the review. The scoping
will be an open process, which seeks to capture the perspectives
of a wide range of stakeholders and to identify the main controversies
and areas of agreement and disagreement. The scoping process will
determine whether and how a PSP review could be undertaken, and
will seek to answer the following questions:
— What issues are raised by PSP in
water and sanitation, and what is the range of stakeholder perspectives
on each of these issues?
— What is the case for a review?
— Do stakeholders agree that a global
review may be able to dispel some of the controversy and define
appropriate measures to move forward?
— How could a multistakeholder review
be run, learning from similar processes, to ensure that all stakeholder
views are heard?
— How could this review lead to a new
consensus, enabling action toward meeting the Millennium Development
Goals?
| 
