Neoliberalism, Global Water Governance, and Sustainable Development

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 1.0, University of Luzern (Politikwissenschaftliches Seminar), course: International Political Economy of Development, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this essay is to take a step back to reflect and suggest that addressing the ¿water crisis¿ through approaches informed by neoliberal economic principles like privatization contradict the notion of sustainable development in a way that has the potential to contribute to exacerbating environmental as well as human emergencies. So, the question is: In what ways may neoliberal ideology and interests undermine the effectiveness of the structures and elements of global water governance and its efforts to attain sustainable development in the Third World?1

The answer2 will be developed by looking at (1) a theoretical perspective, (2) the debate on privatization, (3) the global water governance system (as an important background), (4) the UN Millennium Development Goals and the linked concept of sustainable development and finally (5) the drawing of conclusions about its relationship with neoliberalism.