A/HRC/45/15 Rapporteur encourages States and development finance institutions to take up these good practices, and to explore other ways to address regional inequalities. 84. The Special Rapporteur notes the importance of improving disaggregated data collection in this area. Chapter III of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda is dedicated to the need for data, monitoring and follow-up, and some States mentioned in their submissions publishing data on government websites (see paras. 44 and 57 above). But State reporting to the high-level political forum on sustainable development has demonstrated that “most countries are failing to adequately track progress” on the Sustainable Development Goals, with some States providing national-level data but no disaggregation.13 For States to uphold their 2030 Agenda pledge to leave no one behind, they require data that is disaggregated by, inter alia, gender, age, disability, income, race and ethnicity, and other indicators to target development financing to those who are most in need. In this respect, the Special Rapporteur commends one African State’s practice of reinforcing its national statistics system and improving its reporting on the Sustainable Development Goal indicators (see para. 57 above). 85. State submissions also reflect the trend of seeking private finance to bolster public financing for development (see paras. 27 and 50 above). In this vein, the Special Rapporteur recalls that States have a duty to ensure that private actors that are involved in financing for development, such as banks and investors, adhere to their responsibilities under the Guiding Principle on Business and Human Rights. Based on the information received, the Special Rapporteur is concerned by the trend of privatization, or the “financialization”, of services, that is, the turning of social services into profit-generating opportunities. This often takes place in the context of public-private partnerships. 86. While development finance institutions have advised States to privatize the provision of services such as health care and education, States have the primary responsibility for social services under international human rights law (see A/HRC/42/38). Moreover, civil society has raised concerns that these partnerships can result in human rights violations, and the poor have disproportionately borne the associated costs. In one Southeast Asian country that had privatized water delivery services, foreign water companies charged residents some of the highest prices in the region, even though they received contaminated water that made them ill. 14 Against this background, robust oversight measures are critical for preventing and addressing abuses where private actors are involved. 87. Regarding good practices, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the submission in which a State had recognized the potential disadvantages of public-private partnerships and had described its efforts to use alternatives to supplement domestic revenues, including by instituting tax reforms (see para. 28 above). The Special Rapporteur encourages this effort, and the exploration of other ways to strengthen existing public systems. B. Tax policies 88. The Special Rapporteur highlights tax policies in the context of financing for development because of the emphasis that development finance institutions have placed on them, and the opportunities presented for integrating the right to development. Due to relatively lower taxation rates among developing States and the above-mentioned declining ODA rates, development finance institutions have stressed tax collection as a focus for increasing domestic resource mobilization. Data on Sustainable Development Goals progress shows that the overall rate of taxation among developing States was 18 per cent of gross domestic product, as compared with 23 per cent among the Group of 20 and other developed States in 2018.15 One civil society organization reported that on the advice of development finance institutions, States regularly employed regressive tax measures, such as incentives 13 14 15 14 Livia Bizikova, “Disaggregated data is essential to leave no one behind” (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2017). Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Promoting and Fulfilling the Right to Development: Case Studies from Asia Pacific (2019). Report of the Secretary-General on Sustainable Development Goal Progress, p. 29.