Ms Triona Pender:

I am going to speak about privatisation of education in the global south. In recent decades, neoliberal economic policies, championed by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank, have constrained state funding for public services. This has often triggered crises in provision, quality and access, which has undermined the realisation of rights, particularly in the global south. Indeed, ActionAid’s forthcoming research across 56 countries will show how IMF conditions and policy advice, especially on public sector wages, continue to undermine the investment in public services needed to achieve the SDGs. The crises in public financing, together with a belief that the private sector provides greater "efficiency" and cost-effectiveness, have been used to justify dismantling universal public services and handing them over to private providers or supporting public-private partnerships, PPP.

One consequence is often increasingly unequal provision, which exacerbates the exclusion of women and girls given their vastly unequal responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. That is particularly the case where user fees are charged. Even under a PPP providing for services free at the point of use, the costs and risks to the public purse are often high, transparency and accountability are usually low, and human rights violations are often exacerbated. As NGOs committed to a human rights-based approach, we recognise basic needs as basic rights and oppose all forms of exclusion and discrimination. We regard strengthening the accountable provision of quality, universal and gender-responsive public services, financed through systems of progressive taxation, as central to the equitable fulfilment of rights. We consider privatisation and PPPs as fundamental human rights issues.

We believe it is illogical to expect that the private sector, with a mandate to generate maximum profit and increase shareholder wealth, will take responsibility for delivering quality public services and basic rights to all people, including those living in poverty. Yet this perspective, which has been long held by international financial institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development, OECD, is also evident in many discussions concerning the financing and implementation of the SDGs. It is also increasingly influential among some bilateral donors. I heard about an example in Ethiopia from some of my colleagues last week. It concerned a private school which expelled students whose parents could no longer afford to pay the required fees. Not only were they expelled from the private school, they were also not allowed to take any of their documentation with them, such as results from exams etc., making it impossible for them to continue their education at another school.

Our requests of governments in the north include refraining from proposing, supporting, endorsing or financing privatisation processes or PPPs in their home countries and abroad. That encompasses the roles of those governments as donors, trading partners, shareholders of multilateral development banks and in international fora such as the United Nations and the Global Partnership for Education. We also ask that those governments be explicit in word and deed about how privatisation and PPPs undermine human rights and, specifically, further marginalise vulnerable excluded women and girls by increasing violence and unpaid care and domestic work. They also reinforce risky working conditions. In addition, we ask governments to make explicit, global commitments to supporting public services. These are the foundations for advancing progress on human rights and sustainable development and it is particularly important in ensuring that no one is left behind. We equally encourage governments to abide by the newly-developed Abidjan Principles concerning the human rights obligations of states to provide public education and regulate private involvement in education.

ActionAid recently completed a study on the impact of privatisation on the right to education and it focused on seven countries, namely, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Uganda. I will supply a copy to the committee. The report used the Abidjan Principle as a framework for analysis and clearly states that the overall impact of privatisation has been negative. It encourages donors to support free, quality, public education for all and the development of a system-oriented approach to ensuring this is provided to the highest attainable quality for all children.