Private Finance

We challenge the heavy reliance on private finance and investment attraction policies to achieve the SDGs. By influencing global economic governance at the UN, we aim to remove barriers to public resource mobilization and foster a shift towards sustainable, diversified economies.

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We challenge the heavy reliance on private finance and investment attraction policies to achieve the SDGs. By influencing global economic governance at the UN, we aim to remove barriers to public resource mobilization and foster a shift towards sustainable, diversified economies.

The Challenge

The central role that private finance has taken in the FfD process is disconcerting. Donor countries have been promoting an agenda that heavily rests on using public money, including Official Development Assistance (ODA), and public institutions such as Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), to leverage private finance. Various instruments have been used to implement this agenda, including blended finance, public-private partnerships (PPPs) and risk guarantees. But instead of offering a long-lasting solution, catalyzing private investment at scale may in fact be undermining public policy objectives aimed at sustainable development in the global South, further eroding the role and capacity of the state to provide public infrastructure and services vital to ensuring human rights, development, and climate resilience, and leaving countries more vulnerable to debt crises.

This agenda implies a redefinition of the role of the state, which is a key consideration to stress in the context of a UN discussion on financing for development. In many cases, the state becomes defined by its capacity to provide business friendly regulations and facilitate private profits by carrying the risks that private investors are not ready to take, instead of by its capacity to guarantee the fulfillment of human rights. Moreover, this has implications for democratic accountability, as private actors are mainly accountable to their shareholders and not to citizens.

The tried and failed policy prescriptions promoted by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) over the past decades and increasingly permeating many FfD discussions have evidently not led us any closer to delivering on the goals of the 2030 Agenda, and much less to being prepared to weather the impacts of the extractive economic system, the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate emergency. Yet, lessons learned on the destructive consequences of privatization and austerity, and on the risks of relying on private finance and deregulated markets to deliver public goods are yet to be acknowledged and implemented in a transformative way. Both climate and health risks have been increasingly dealt with by similar market-led responses pushed by private sector lobbying, donor countries and IFIs ‘private-finance first’ approach. But economic models shaped by a focus on attracting private investors, the pursuit of economic growth at all costs and ‘fiscal responsibility’ are now proving deadly in times of crises and are unfit for purpose in the face of inevitable future challenges.

Our Recommendations

Recognize that voluntary principles are insufficient

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We call on governments to engage constructively in the ongoing development in the Human Rights Council towards an international legally binding instrument on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises as a first step in regulating transnational Corporations.

Prioritize public finance

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As it is often less costly, more financially sustainable, and more directly accountable to citizens than private finance. Moreover, public interventions are critical for social equity reasons or where social returns are much larger than private returns. This requires:

An ambitious plan at the international level to increase domestic resource mobilization and expand fiscal space, including through:

  • Clamping down on losses of public resources through tax abuse, evasion and avoidance (see Domestic Resource Mobilization recommendations)
  • Dealing with unsustainable debts through a new, fair, democratic and transparent sovereign debt workout mechanism at the UN (see Debt recommendations )
  • Withdrawing from and/or rejecting new unfair international trade agreements (see Trade    recommendations), and
  • Increasing levels and quality of international concessional resources with a cautious and    evidence-based approach to blended finance (see International Development Cooperation recommendations)

Promote industrial policies as an essential part of national development strategies for countries in the global South.

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These can enable countries to move away from commodity dependency and export-oriented strategies and move towards socio economic transformation through diversified, dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable economies. ​​This requires grassroots organizations and civil society to take on crucial roles in defining development plans via democratic processes. Industrial policy could include elements such as:

  • Promoting strategic sectors and domestic reinvestment
  • Re-orienting countries’ public development banks (PDBs) to finance development plans,    with a focus on domestic priorities and needs instead of creating project pipelines that aim to attract foreign investors
  • Advancing active labor market policies such as living wages, equal pay, and the protection of workers’ rights
  • Breaking up land concentration to raise sustainable agricultural production and increase    rural purchasing power

Review the developmental outcomes of PPPs and ‘private finance first’ approaches promoted by governments and multilateral development finance institutions.

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  • We call on governments to declare a moratorium on funding, promoting or providing        technical support for PPPs and ‘private finance first’ approaches, like blended finance,        until an independent and comprehensive review into their development outcomes is          completed.
  • We call on governments to exempt public services, such as water, energy, health and          education, from privatization and PPPs.

Recognising the urgent need to address the increasing role of the financial sector and asset managers

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We call for an intergovernmental negotiation on a global convention to regulate the asset management industry.

Recognising that voluntary principles are insufficient, we call on national governments to:

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  • Engage constructively in the ongoing negotiations in the Human Rights Council towards an international legally binding instrument on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises as a first step in regulating transnational corporations.
  • Establish financial regulation, especially of shadow banking, capital controls, or reviewing foreign investment incentives.

Recognising the critical need to align business practices with the highest standards

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We call on governments and private enterprises to effectively implement the ILO International Labor Standards and ILO Conventions, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and to set up effective mechanisms for resolving abuses and provide adequate remedy, especially for Indigenous Peoples, peasants, and rural communities. Furthermore, governments must ensure the contributions from business to national fiscal systems and address tax evasion and avoidance. The current 15% minimum global tax on TNCs is a welcome yet insufficient step.

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