Reclaiming Public Water Network’s strategy meeting “The Future of Public Water” Barcelona, November 2013 PUP in context: How do we define the Public-Public Partnerships we want to promote? Emanuele Lobina Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) Business School, University of Greenwich, UK

Definition of PUPs  Public-Public Partnerships (PUPs): Peer relationships aimed at developing capacity to be effective and accountable public services, and which exclude profit-seeking  PUPs are defined by public-ness - public ownership is a means to public-ness, not an end  PUPs include public operators/agencies, labour and communities  PUPs include Public-Community Partnerships

Definition of public-ness  Public-ness is the spirit that leads to community development  Community development depends on context  Different development objectives are more pressing in global South and North  Community development has to be defined by communities themselves

What PUPs are for  Different objectives of community development  Quantity – Human right to water (Phnom Penh)  Quality – Quality Public Water Services (Mwanza)  Environment – Public operators and water resources (New York, Paris, Bangkok)  Good decisions – institutional capacity (PUPs and remunicipalisation)

How PUPs deliver  Solidarity, not profit  The market does not deliver community development, because greed only feeds itself  Collaboration, not competition  Community development requires inclusion, not exclusion  Effectiveness first, not efficiency  Outcomes count more than process  Trust and openness, not secrecy  Knowledge as a common good, not a barrier

Partners in PUPs  Any partner willing and able to put community development first  Public operators, communities, labour, civil society  Not all possible partners  Not the private sector, because market development is not community development  Not those public operators that are seeking market opportunities

PUPs as alternatives to privatisation  PUPs restrict the policy space for PPPs  PUPs as part of campaign against privatisation in Huancayo; more WOPs = less PPIAF  PUPs are about public-ness and expand the opportunities for public-ness  Campaigning for progressive PUPs, from advocacy to public demand, e.g. ECI and the Italian movement  PUPs support the growth of remunicipalisation, e.g. solidarity of Paris in France and elsewhere

Paris, PUPs, and remunicipalisation  Eau de Paris is key in the global remunicipalisation trend  Symbolic power of the Paris example  PUPs to promote remunicipalisation in France and beyond  Strong acceleration in the last 5 years  Global North: 51/84 cases  Trebled RPY ( : 5.6; : 1.9)  Effect Paris in France ( : 15/21 cases)

Conclusions  PUPs are partnerships for developing public water as part of community development  Community development is not market development  The market segregates losers  Community means growing together as one  Campaigning for PUPs is campaigning for water as a common good – water is life