Privatisation
Privatisation, Power & Poverty
Watch War on Want's water privatisation film here >>
The privatisation of public services in developing countries is hampering the global fight against poverty.
The evidence shows that the poor are denied access to essential services when multinationals take over. Private companies have failed to extend services to ensure that the poorest people can access them, as well as increasing the prices of services beyond what the poorest can afford. Governments are best placed to provide public services on the scale needed to tackle poverty and ensure access and affordability for all. No wonder there are so many cases where privatisation has been deeply unpopular – witness mass protests in Bolivia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, India, South Africa and elsewhere.
Victory for War on Want
The British government took a big step towards recognising this in 2005, when it cut the privatisation strings it attached to its aid. This change – a result of a joint campaigning by trade unionists and War on Want – was welcome. We congratulated the government for the change publicly. Yet the government continues to promote the privatisation of public services through the use of privatisation consultants such as Adam Smith International and initiatives such as the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. This not only conflicts with the government’s own poverty reduction mandate, but it also fails to recognise the ongoing work to build alternative models such as public sector and community-based services which are affordable, accountable and accessible to all. And the World Bank and IMF - to which the UK contributes many millions of pounds of aid money each year - continue to force developing countries to privatise their public services as a condition of loans and debt relief. War on Want is part of the European campaign to stop this practice by challenging the World Bank and the countries which support it - read more here.
The British government took a big step towards recognising this in 2005, when it cut the privatisation strings it attached to its aid. This change – a result of a joint campaigning by trade unionists and War on Want – was welcome. We congratulated the government for the change publicly. Yet the government continues to promote the privatisation of public services through the use of privatisation consultants such as Adam Smith International and initiatives such as the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. This not only conflicts with the government’s own poverty reduction mandate, but it also fails to recognise the ongoing work to build alternative models such as public sector and community-based services which are affordable, accountable and accessible to all. And the World Bank and IMF - to which the UK contributes many millions of pounds of aid money each year - continue to force developing countries to privatise their public services as a condition of loans and debt relief. War on Want is part of the European campaign to stop this practice by challenging the World Bank and the countries which support it - read more here.
 | DFID's global power empire: Profile of power company Globeleq, wholly owned by the UK government and using taxpayers’ money for electricity privatisation. |
| Profiting from Poverty [pdf]: Report analysing the role of privatisation consultants in developing countries. |
| Privatisation Briefing [pdf]: Outline of public service privatisation and how the poor can’t afford it. |
| Water for Sale [pdf]: Report in which workers examine the effects of privatisation in South Africa. |
