Stop Water Privatisation! Alternatives to the PPIAF

Water Justice

May 2007

As the World Bank agency, the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) met in the Hague on 23-24 May, hundreds of civil society representatives called on donors to reject the Facility's role in promoting water privatisation and fund public alternatives instead.

The Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) is a little known World Bank agency that funds consultants to advise impoverished country governments on how to privatise key sectors such as water, energy and telecommunications.
On the agenda of the annual meeting of PPIAF is a proposal to extend its remit and entrench its position in World Bank water policies. Activists are arguing that the money given to the Facility could be much better spent on supporting public-public partnerships.
This civil society position has been backed by the Norwegian government, which announced earlier this year that it would no longer support the Facility as it did not believe it was extending access to water to the most impoverished worldwide.
In advance of the meeting, civil society movements, including TNI, have been mobilising to turn the spotlight on this little known institution, sending an open letter to the donors to PPIAF calling on them to end their suppport for the Facility. Civil society movements are also organising a conference and mobilisations to combine with the opening of the annual meeting in Hague on 23-24 May 2007.

Events and Actions

> International Civil Society Forum: “Stop water privatization - Alternatives to the PPIAF,” 22-23 May

> Programme (PDF)

To register for the forum, contact: Abel Esteban, e-mail: abel[at]corporateeurope.org; Tel.: 0031 206127023.

> See the video of the action at the PPIAF meeting on May 23rd, by Friends of the Earth International