Anti-PPP campaign targets World Bank

Coordinated by Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development, the campaign demands that western governments, the World Bank and other development banks stop prioritising PPPs over traditional public borrowing to finance social and economic infrastructure and services.

Eurodad has brought together 146 organisations from 45 countries behind the manifesto, which claims that “experience of PPPs has been overwhelmingly negative and very few PPPs have delivered results in the public interest”.

“We are seeing increased promotion of PPPs by the World Bank, G20 and others,” said Maria Jose Romero, policy and advocacy manager at Eurodad. “Until relatively recently PPPs were largely confined to developed economies, but now they are being aggressively pushed onto countries in the global south as the answer to development finance shortfalls.

“This dangerous trend means the very countries which are already most vulnerable to debt and most in need of development aid are saddled with expensive, high risk, undemocratic and unaccountable projects.”