ECA Watch launches Map on popular alternatives

Brussels, 29 October 2014 

 

Global NGO network launches a Map that shows popular alternative proposals for infrastructure to encourage public finance institutions to invest in better projects ECA Watch, a network of non-governmental organizations campaigning for reform of public finance institutions (e.g. Export Credit Agencies) and better implementation of social, environmental and human rights standards launched today a “Map on popular alternative proposals of envisioning infrastructure”.

 

Linde Zuidema, coordinator of ECA Watch at NGO FERN, says: “The Map can serve as a mean to inform people and support networks on sustainable infrastructure”. The map initially shows cases in Africa, Latin America and Europe. In the future the map will be complemented with more cases throughout the globe.

 

According to Mónica Vargas, one of the initiators of the project at the Observatory on Debt in Globalisation (ODG), member of ECA Watch: “Infrastructures should be planned paying attention to issues such as: Who decides? Who benefits? The cases selected for the Map show that there are alternative proposals, exemplary because of their ability to respect the needs of all stakeholders instead of just fulfilling capital interests in the North and the South. The main objective of the map is to spread information, proposals and contribute to linking people and groups with each other, in order to enrich the narrative on alternative infrastructure”.

 

ECA Watch developed the map initially to show cases in the energy, water and transport sector. An example in the energy sector is the National Energy Proposal of the Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (Movement of People affected by Dams in Brazil), which includes a Platform that responds to the impacts of large hydroelectric dams in Brazil, integrating people affected by dams (farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples) as well as workers in the energy sector. Its aim is to build another energy model, that plans and organises popular control over the production and distribution of energy, as well as over the wealth it generates. The idea is also to allocate resources and energy generation to people's real needs, as well as to ensure the protection of the environment. 

 

Another example, in the water sector is the Italian Water Referendum of 2011 and its results: the intention to prevent water privatization and to consider water as a common good. The initiative proposes management of water systems at the municipal level and avoid any interference by free market principles.

 

You can enter the map here

 

Contacts for press:

Mónica Vargas , Observatory on Debt in Globalisation (ODG), monica.vargas@odg.cat, +34 66 202 64 97

Linde Zuidema, Eca Watch Coordinator, linde@fern.org, +32 2 894 4694