Privatization of public services and natural resource extraction is now a central component of IMF and World Bank program and project work in developing countries. For most impoverished countries, it is a condition for development assistance and debt relief. This review by the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of organisations concerned about the international financial system, looks at privatisation in the areas of water, land and labour - and indicates that broad assumptions about the benefits from privatization are an error. "For the poor especially, privatization as a whole has not brought better service at an affordable price," says the review.