Privatization of Public Enterprises in Nigeria:
The Views and Counterviews
By May Ifeoma Nwoye, Ph.D.

The issue of privatization has been a subject of intense global debate in recent years. In Africa, it has remained highly controversial and politically risky. Privatization in Nigeria has not been a popular reform. It has received so much criticism from labor, academia, and individuals. There have been numerous strikes against proposed sell-offs by unions fearing loss of jobs. While proponents of privatization see that aspect of economic reform as an instrument of efficient resource management for rapid economic development and poverty reduction…

Public Goods – The Economic vs the Ethical Category
By Ljubica Komazec, Ph.D.

The phenomenon of public goods has existed since the dawn of civilization, but their significance and the approach to them has been different in various historical, and especially socio-economic, stages of the development of civilization. This issue is becoming emphasized in the conditions of the occurrence of the New Economy (or Total Economy), especially in countries in transition.

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A Case Study on the Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in Bulgaria - The Concession of Sofia Water Supply and Wastewater Services: Legal, Economic, Social and Gender Aspects
By Genoveva Tisheva and Irina Moulechkova, Ph.D.

By joining GATS the Bulgarian government had to start playing the GATS game and, subsequently, to follow its rules. GATS is the first multilateral agreement containing the commitment for a continuous liberalization of the trade in all services, essential services included, through binding rules. The aim of GATS is to increase international trade by removing any control and restrictions as fiscal policies, standards, conditionalities, environment protection, existing social standards or laws which maintain the public monopoly on some services.

Is Water a Public Good or a Commodity?
Thoughts on water privatization and related issues for poor populations
By Massan d’ Almeida, AWID

More than 1.1 billion humans are indeed deprived of drinking water and 2.4 billion of health services. Already, more than half of the population in developing countries suffers from at least one of the six main water related diseases that kills more than five millions people every year, eleven thousands of whom are children who die every day, which is three to four times the number of victims of the World Trade Center attacks! How then is one to understand the deafening silence of the media and our own?

Women and Water Privatization
By Ana Elena Obando, WHRnet

The increase of the global degradation of ecosystems, the excessive consumption of water, contamination and salinization of water-bearings, aquifers and dams, along with the impact of extreme poverty which has been worsened by privatization, are contributing factors to an environmental catastrophe. This has had profound effects on the availability of drinking water and, consequently, has led to the violation of the right to life, safety, food, health and education of billions of human beings. Water is a fundamental and inalienable human right and a common good that every person and institution of this planet should protect.