Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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32 World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change In Africa and Asia-Pacific, positive responses outweigh negative ones in general terms, and positive responses also outweigh the negative in all specific areas. Specific Experiences Members of Consumers International were also asked to submit case studies on the impact and the need for representation. Respondents were asked to give an example of where their organisation had changed a policy, effected enforcement or had a positive impact on consumers through exercising the right to representation, and to describe the situation before, the actions taken, and the situation today. Respondents were also asked to submit an example of where the organisation believes that better representation would lead to a significant improvement for consumers. Some 45 case studies on impact and need were received. Many of these were quite brief, simply naming the area in which progress had been made or greater representation sought. Others were more descriptive, and a selection of these is included in Annexes B and C. While the quantitative analysis above highlights the similarity of members’ work, the case studies illustrate their diversity. This is evident not only in the range of issues presented, but in the tone and terms in which these are described. CI members in Denmark, Australia and Germany, for example, said they were at pains to complete the questionnaire, given the extensive nature of their representation work. “We are probably not typical,” wrote Benedicte Federspiel of the Danish Consumer Council, “because we are represented on all issues in our ministries, on public committees, through written consultation, in meetings, etc. We sit on about 250 permanent councils and committees, in addition to our ad hoc meetings with a wide range of institutions, industries, etc.” Nonetheless, while she judged that “overall, our impact is good,” she noted that representation on its own does not guarantee success, since impact “also depends on whether the political party or industry in question wants to give in to consumers or not.” Equally untypical was the response sent from a regional branch of Argentina’s Unión de Usuarios y Consumidores (UUC). “As evidence of the absolute lack of protection faced by consumers in our province,” writes Graciela Yamaguchi, from Posadas, “we are unable to respond positively to any of the questions on representation in the CI member survey.” This comment reflects the difficulties of conducting consumer representation away from capital cities and centres of legislative and political power. Case studies submitted by UUC offices in Posadas and in Buenos Aires describe similar quests – obtaining consumer representation on the regulatory boards of local public utilities. In Buenos Aires, a consumer representative from UUC headquarters has been appointed to an oversight commission of the main water supplier, and reports that, after just six months, “it is premature to evaluate results.” In Posadas, where no regulatory mechanisms exist for oversight of the state-owned electricity monopoly, the UUC branch office strategy is to obtain a voice in mechanisms set up for its eventual privatisation. Securing consumer representation in privatisation processes is a goal cited in several cases studies, with success stories told by Slovak Consumer Association, in energy, and the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, with its participation in the National Economic Consultative Forum. But winning a seat at the table does not ensure that the appropriate representative will sit there. “We have been successful in having consumer representatives placed on various committees overseeing the privatisation of public enterprises,” writes Alphonse Issi of Cameroon’s Mouvement National des Consommateurs. “Unfortunately, those potentially effective appointments have often fallen upon persons who have no reason to represent consumers.” While the eclipse of state ownership may provide new opportunities for some types of representation, it closes avenues for others. Emil Bojin, of Romania’s Association for Consumer Protection, reports that successful consumer representation is increasingly difficult to obtain, in part because “authorities
World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change have reduced the number of bodies” where representation could occur. Even where formal representation is abundant, its impact is hamstrung by lack of resources – a limitation encountered in rich and poor countries alike. Even the august Consumers Union (US) cites as a major obstacle to representation work the “need for funding to support staff travel and participation in the policy-making arenas already open to us, or could be, if we had the resources to push for it,” writes Carolyn Cairns. In Niger, for example, inclusion of the Association de Défense des Droits des Consommateurs in the Ministry of Transportation’s National Committee was a step forward. “Public transportation is one of the least endowed sectors in Niger,” writes Mahaman Nouri. “The auto fleet is dilapidated, regulations are obsolete, technical inspections are a mockery, inspectors are corrupt, public roads are in poor state of repair.” Consumers are the victims of frequent accidents and high tariffs. The National Transportation Committee includes Ministry officials, delegates from several transportation unions, carriers and related technical unions, in addition to representatives from two consumer organisations (ADDC and ORCONI). The committee is empowered to regulate a number of important transportation issues, and is entitled to drawn on resources provided by the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture, Industry and Artisanship. “But no resources are available at this time,” adds Nouri. As noted in the quantitative analysis, strategies for exercising representation are as likely to be defined by the national context as by the specific issue. Illustrating this is the following description from Senegal of the realpolitick of lobbying, where good connections and back-scratching were required to carry the day. “At first, the skills we needed (to sit on the Water Regulatory Commission) were technical,” writes Dr Ahmadou Abdoulaye Aidara of the ADEETélS. “But subsequent steps demanded lobbying and defensive action within the government, and this required playing on family relations, friendships and frank collaboration between conflicting interests.” Even so, representation strategies can backfire, as the Burundi Consumer Association discovered when its interventions before the national Fuel Price Committee were “adversely exploited” by other commission members. Like other groups working in utilities, ABUCO cites timely provision of information as a key need to improve its defence of consumers before regulatory bodies. When representation cannot obtain soughtafter benefits, or when involvement poses the danger – or the perception – of co-optation, defence of consumer welfare may demand a serious re-thinking of representation from within as a viable strategy. The case studies showed that consumer groups are zealous of their independence. For example, Brazil’s Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC) lost the battle but won the war when it was thrown off an advisory committee on medicines for going public with its doubts about medicines that were eventually banned. Once avenues for representation have been exhausted, alternative strategies may be employed. Working with the media is often effective, as is lobbying and other forms of advocacy that tend to operate from the outside in. Not least among these is legal action. “In our experience,” writes Dr Horacio Luis Bersten of Argentina’s Unión de Usuarios y Consumidores, “the best type of consumer representation is via class action suits that reverse situations it would impossible to change any other way.” Case studies from consumer groups in India, Hong Kong, Macao, Argentina and many other nations seconded this view. 33
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