Select Committee on International Development Written Evidence


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?





 
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