GI-ESCR co-sponsored a session at the "Reclaiming our Future" Conference, that took place on 9 October 2023 in Marrakech in the context of the IMF/WB Annual Meetings. The panel presented the main messages of the History RePPPeated II report that GI-ESCR has contributed to and other CSOs’ work on the challenges of private finance for essential services, framing it in the renewed WB/MDBs' push for private finance for financing infrastructure and public services. 

The session, titled “Why focusing on private finance and Public-Private Partnerships is not the solution to the polycrisis?” explored the effects of the private sector bias by development finance institutions and multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank Group, highlighting the negative impacts of privatisation and PPPs implemented in both the Global South and the Global North. Furthermore, it provided a platform to share experiences from ongoing CSO campaigns and case studies to expose these problematic practices. In the wake of multiple and interconnected crises, the promotion of private finance and PPPs is a false solution that needs to be challenged with a strong call for high quality public services. 

It was aligned with GI-ESCR’s strategic focus on strengthening public services and the public financing of social services for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, such as education, health and water, against the growing reliance on private financing and public-private partnerships (PPPs) in public service delivery. 

Katelynne Kirk from Jubilee Scotland presented the case of a PPP in which the Scottish government paid private companies to provide free car parking at three Scottish hospitals for a year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Anna Marriott from Oxfam presented the main messages of Oxfam’s Sick Development Report on IFC in health, and Alvic Padilla from the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) presented their case on the failure of Nepal’s Melamchi Water Supply Project, a PPP that was set up to provide safe and drinkable water to Kathmandu Valley residents, and to adequately compensate Melamchi Valley communities in Nepal. Anderson Miamen from the Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education (COTAE) discussed the lessons learnt from the implementation of the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), a report it has published together with GI-ESCR, that investigates the impacts of the LEAP PPP in which the Liberian government  has outsourced the management of Liberia’s entire primary school system to private providers, including Bridge Liberia. The conversation was moderated by Maria Jose Romero from Eurodad.