Speaking notes for World Social Forum event “GATS and the future of public services”

This paper expresses concern about the imbalance in global trade between developed and developing countries which is exacerbated by the service industries’ investment in developing countries without a commensurate movement of labour out of developing countries to provide services elsewhere.

The paper demonstrates that the current GATS 2000 negotiations will significantly affect the provision of public services and argues that we need to challenge the idea that the private sector can do much better in the provision of essential services than the public sector or NGOs.

Findings:

• an increase of roughly $8billion would be enough to get everyone into school. This is only an increase of 16 % on global ODA, which as a percentage of global GNP is at an all time low. Private sector invest in education is not the only way to get kids into school
• genuine participation is vital in ensuring that communities rare in control of the process and that the way education is delivered is culturally appropriate and meets their needs
• it is never the solution to bypass developing country government bureaucracies with private sector providers, rather to strengthen the capacity of the public sector in the longer term
• there needs to be a realistic and empathetic understanding of the absorptive capacity of communities, both in terms of the resources available and the pace of programs
• service delivery programs need to be flexible and inclusive (particularly allowing for gender and cultural issues) and should not use a one-size-fits all approach
• a critical issue in making basic education work in very poor communities is addressing the question of teacher training, which requires a substantial upfront investment with little immediate return, and culturally appropriate means to keep teachers in rural and remote areas
• the champions of privatisation of education argue that if parents pay for education they are more committed to ensuring their kids stay in school. Oxfam argue that most parents value education and even if desperately poor will make huge sacrifices to get their kids in school, including paying fees that they cannot afford. However, school costs in many developing countries, often just books or clothing, are a real barrier to participation, and can represent a month’s worth (or more) of a family income

Conclusions: poor countries need professional, sustainable public services that are not dependent on making profits. They need to be able to develop their own capacity to train and retain teachers so as to provide universal coverage and to build the capacity to sustain professional teaching at increasingly high levels. There may be a role for private providers in certain situations, just as there are in developed economies. But on the face of it, the idea of using GATS to open up developing economies looks like case of exploitation of new markets rather than a long-term investment in education and ultimately, real poverty reduction.