Civil society groups reclaim policies for the public

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), usually portrayed as a useful tool towards sustainable development, actually “involve disproportionate risks and costs for people and the public purse”, claims a global coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions supported by FES in the Spotlight Report 2017 launched on 10^th July 2017.

“The proponents of privatization and public-private partnerships (PPPs) present the state as impoverished and unfit to deliver, leaving the private sector as the only way to provide the necessary means for implementing the SDGs”.

But “PPPs can even exacerbate inequalities, decrease equitable access to essential services and jeopardize the fulfillment of human rights”, state the authors, based on experiences and reports by national and regional groups from all parts of the world.

The Spotlight Report concludes that “It is high time to reclaim public policy space and take bold measures to strengthen public finance, regulate or reject PPPs and weaken the grip of corporate power on people’s lives. In short, to put ‘people over profit’.”

The report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017 was published on the opening day of the High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York and presented there on July 13th as well. The report provides the most comprehensive independent assessment of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 160-page report is supported by a broad range of civil society organizations and trade unions, and based on experiences and reports by national and regional groups and coalitions from all parts of the world. Its 35 articles and textboxes cover all sectors of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, and reflect the rich geographic and cultural diversity of their authors.

The Spotlight Report is published by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum (GPF), Public Services International (PSI), Social Watch, Society for International Development (SID), and Third World Network (TWN), supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The report “Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2017 - Reclaiming policies for the public. Privatization, partnerships, corporate capture and their impact on sustainability and inequality - assessments and alternatives” of the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is available at www.2030spotlight.org