The operations and effectiveness of public and private provision of solid waste collection services in Kampala

This paper compares the operations and discusses the effectiveness of public and private sector provision of solid waste collection in Kampala, Uganda. Household data suggest that the private sector is more effective than the public sector. Private sector companies provide services like container provision and providing timely and fixed collection time tables. Contrary to popular perception, fees charged by private companies are moderate. Public sector clients are charged fees even when the service is supposed to be free. Clients of private sector providers are more satisfied than those of public sector providers. It is however, revealed that while public sector serve mainly the low incomes, the private sector serves mainly the rich. In spite of these notable differences, clients of both public and private sector perceive the problem of solid waste management (SWM) in Kampala to be very serious. The effectiveness of public and private sector operations in solid waste collection in Kampala is hampered by corruption and lack of transparency. Given the situation of open competition for clients involving both public and private sector in Kampala, it is possible the public sector can operate effectively if they start commercial services officially like their private sector counterparts. This calls for a formal public-private partnership where the public and private sector can work together with the public sector dominating poor and marginalized areas while the private sector concentrates on rich neighborhoods.     

Sharing the Baton,Not Passing It: Collaboration between Public and Private Child Welfare Agencies to Reunify Families

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, public sector child welfare agencies are contracting with private agencies for the provision of specialized services to clients while maintaining oversight and case management responsibilities. At the same time, funders, both private and public, are demanding that service providers partner and collaborate with one another. In this article, we present results from a study of a unique partnership between two state child welfare agencies and a private child welfare agency aimed at reunifying families whose children have been removed and placed in foster care. Data was obtained from 41 key informants using a questionnaire and a structured interview. Findings support earlier studies of collaboration, and indicate the strengths of this partnership and factors that facilitated and hindered it. The results have implications for agencies that both contract for and provide a range of child welfare services as well as other interagency relationships.     

Solid waste collection by the private sector: Households’ perspective—Findings from a study in Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania

The issue of poor solid waste management (SWM) is a challenge throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries. People always generate solid waste through their daily activities. This solid waste needs to be properly managed in a way that minimises risk to the environment and human health, which means storage, collection and proper disposal. At the same time solid waste creates livelihoods for the urban poor in terms of employment and business. This paper looks into one aspect of SWM, namely collection service.The importance of SWM is now recognised at international, national and community level. The Agenda 21 declaration of the United Nations [UN. (1993). The global partnership for environment and development: A guide to agenda 21 (pp. 88–94). New York: United Nations] addresses the issue of environmentally sound management of solid waste, with emphasis on the extension of solid waste service coverage to all urban and rural areas worldwide.SWM is a service for which local governments are usually responsible. However, due to inadequate capacity in the public sector, in many developing countries the private sector has stepped in to fill the gap in service provision. Dar es Salaam (DSM), Tanzania, is one such developing country city in which the private sector has become involved in solid waste collection services. The sector comprises Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), and local private companies [Kassim, S. M., & Ali, S. M. (2003). Private solid waste collection SERVICE, Dar es Salaam Tanzania. In Proceedings of the 29th WEDC international conference: Towards millenium development goals. Abuja Nigeria, Water and Engineering Centre WEDC]. The private sector in solid waste collection in DSM has been promoted by Sustainable DSM Programme (SDP) through Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) [UNCHS. (1994a). Sustainable Human Settlements Development: Implementing Agenda 21; UNCHS. (1994b). UNCHS (Habitat) Activities; New Envoy to UNCHS from the United Republic of Tanzania. Habitat News, 16, 1–3].Contracting out of solid waste collection services to the private sector has emerged to fill the gap in service delivery. In 1991 the city was generating 1400 tonnes of solid waste per day out of which only 5% was being collected. Currently daily solid waste generation is estimated at about 2500 tonnes and approximately 48% of the total waste generated is collected. At present, privatisation covers 44 out of 73 city wards, and 45¹ active registered private companies are involved [Chinamo, E. B. M. (2003). An overview of solid waste management and how solid waste collection benefits the poor in the city of Dar es Salaam. Solid waste collection that benefits the poor, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Collaborating Working Group on Solid Waste Management in Low and Middle -Income Countries (CWG)].This paper presents the findings of a study that explored the households’ perspective on solid waste collection services provided by the private sector. The study showed that the solid waste collection service by the private sector is greatly influenced by households’ attitudes and behaviour. Their participation, demand for service, awareness, satisfaction level and views on cost recovery are important in the sector. The study concludes that the above factors would be superior if customers (households) were more involved in the planning and decision-making.     

Factors influencing the success of PPP at feasibility stage – A tripartite comparison study in Hong Kong

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) have been used extensively in both developing and developed countries in delivering various types of projects, ranging from road construction, railway transport systems to health care facilities and schools. Critical success factors of PPP schemes at the implementation stage were identified. It is however more important for decision-makers to identify the factors for feasibility evaluation of adopting the PPP at the outset. This study aims to explore the key successful ingredients to be assessed at the initial stage of PPP projects as perceived public sector, private consortium and general community so as to attain a “triple win” scenario, via a questionnaire survey and a series of expert interviews conducted in Hong Kong. Survey results indicate that the most critical factor for evaluating the feasibility of PPP projects, especially to the general community, is an acceptable level of tariff. Cost effectiveness and financial attractiveness are the most important evaluation factors as ranked by the public sector and private consortium respectively. In addition, the existence of a long-term demand for the proposed services, availability of strong private consortium, alignment with government’s strategic objectives, as well as reliable service delivery are also rated as highly important to the success of PPP schemes. Addressing the tripartite expectations is indispensable to ensure the feasibility and successful delivery of public services and infrastructure projects via PPP schemes.     

Privatisation Results: Private Sector Participation in Water Services After 15 Years

Privatisation of public infrastructure has been the mantra of many development agencies since the late 1980s. Water supply is no exception, and various forms of private sector participation (PSP) have been tried in the water and sanitation sector. This article examines the results of these experiments. It suggests that PSP has had mixed results and that in several important respects the private sector seems to be no more efficient in delivering services than the public sector. Despite growing evidence of failures and increasing public pressure against it, privatisation in water and sanitation is still alive, however. Increasingly, it is being repackaged in new forms such as that of public‐private partnership.     

The possible role of the non-profit sector in Hungary

A common feature of most non-profit theories is their concentration on the service-providing role of non-profit organisations, and the neglect of their redistributional role. At the cost of some simplification, there are two possible public policy responses to social inequalities: (1) the welfare state model with welfare redistribution under government control; and (2) the non-profit-based model — a large network of private organisations heavily supported by the government and complemented by government delivery of services. After 40 years of state socialism, Hungary now faces some important questions. What will be the role of the new voluntary sector? What are the possibilities of following the Western European route — a version of the welfare state model — or the American way — a non-profit-based model bolstered by ‘third-party government’? The present Hungarian situation is ambiguous; we can find arguments for and against both. It is also argued that a mixed solution, some cooperation between the public and private sectors, is needed. The Western European, American and Hungarian experiences indicate that only a strong for-profit sector and a developed, harmonious government/non-profit partnership can ensure healthy social and economic development. The present Hungarian situation is far too complex and difficult to promise a fast and conflict-free establishment of this partnership. But both public institutions and government are acting in a way that may result in the development of a government-supported non-profit sector. There may be an opportunity for developing a ‘Hungarian welfare state model’.     

Surplus Food Recovery and Food Aid: The Pivotal Role of Non-profit Organisations. Insights From Italy and Germany

Food security and food waste are unanimously recognised as relevant issues affecting the whole society and should be therefore acknowledged as a priority on the public agenda. Nonetheless, in many countries the third sector stands in for public actors and operates to tackle both these issues. This paper explores the role of public and third sector in tackling food poverty and food waste, particularly analysing the role of the non-profit organisations involved in the food recovery and redistribution processes in two European regions: Lombardy (Italy) and Baden-Württemberg (Germany). By comparing the two different policy framework and the organisations’ actions, the study recognises the ability of the non-profit sector to create new relationships among different actors (private for-profit, private non-profit as well as public actors) while answering various unmet needs. The paper draws on a mix of secondary and primary data including observations and interviews in the two regions carried out in 2014 and focuses on two relevant case studies (the “Associazione Banco Alimentare” and the “Tafel”).     

Public-private co-operation for the development of low-income shelter

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the limits of public sector production of low-income housing in developing countries and explore ways in which the public sector can facilitate increased efforts of the private sector to provide shelter. Topics discussed below include the need for greater private sector involvement in shelter production for low-income people, constraints to increased private sector participation, and suggestions as to what steps may be taken by the public sector, including international development agencies, to stimulate action by the private sector.     

Public sector delivery of waste management services: cases from the Indian Sub-Continent

This paper discusses the role of public sector institutions in the delivery of urban services, with a particular focus on waste management in the Indian Sub-Continent. Public sector institutions are the major stakeholders in the delivery of urban sevices. They hold the major responsibilities, funds and employ a large number of staff. The public sector institutions are also exposed to political influence and the institutional changes are often politically or donors driven. However, since new institutions such as non-government organisations and private sector are taking important roles in the actual delivery of services, there is a greater need to understand the existing linkages to promote integration. The informal sector also provides services to a large number of population. In order to promote efficient and effective delivery of urban services, it is important to work on the integrated approaches involving key stakeholders.     

Comment on Stephen M. Wunker, ‘the promise of non-profits in Poland and Hungary: an analysis of third sector renaissance’

The pre-war Hungarian voluntary sector was relatively weak as a service-provider, but played major social and political roles, and was an important vehicle of the self-organisation of society. That is why state socialist governments could develop the nationalised system of social services quite easily, but could not completely destroy citizens' autonomy, solidarity and private initiatives. Both the pre-war traditions and the social and economic forces brought about by state socialism are of crucial importance in shaping the newly emerging Hungarian non-profit sector. The traditional government/non-profit partnership may be the basis for contracting out state-financed public services. At the same time, voluntary organisations are expected to plug the gaps present in the state socialist service system. Large government-funded non-profit organisations may play an important role in the denationalisation process, some of them can be appropriate means of assuring that the grant making procedure remain free from politicisation.     

Aligning systems to create full-service schools: the Boston experience, so far

Leaders of full-service schools in Boston seek to expand the number and increase the impact of Boston's full-service schools, catalyzing a realignment of public resources and an expansion of private investment. The Full-Service Schools Roundtable, led by a dynamic staff and supported by the mayor and the superintendent of schools, is a steadily growing coalition of educators, public agencies, human service providers, and community leaders. Challenges for the Roundtable are to build the public will to invest in full-service schools; secure leadership from stakeholders; share accountability across sectors so that schools prioritize youth development and health, and service providers share responsibility for school success; and become a political force, championing the strategic realignment of public investments based on child outcomes.     

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT APPROACHES TO SERVICE DELIVERY: AN ANALYSIS FROM A TRANSACTIONS COST PERSPECTIVE

Municipal governments are less likely to contract out for service delivery if citizen preferences for the service are heterogeneous. This conclusion is based on an analysis that extends to the public sector the empirical industrial organization literature on transaction costs and the "make or buy" decision faced by private firms. Service delivery practices for sixty-three municipal services are examined. The findings are consistent with the proposition that the cost for writing and monitoring contracts may be an important consideration in municipal service delivery approach and that bureaucratic supply may not be as inefficient as some previous studies indicate.     

Briefly Noted

In “Guidance on Strategies to Promote Best Practice in Antipsychotic Prescribing for Children and Adolescents,” a 54‐page document from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released this spring, the federal government synthesizes the state of evidence in systems‐level strategies to promote antipsychotic best practice prescribing for young people. In response to safety concerns, federal, state, and public‐sector agencies have already invested in strategies to monitor prescribing and to support best practices. For Medicaid, since 2014 this is done by prior authorization, in which prescribing clinicians must receive approval for dispensing antipsychotic medications to youth. The document from SAMHSA is based on data collection and consensus building. Its goal is to provide a centralized resource for public‐ and private‐sector decision‐makers, prescribing clinicians, service providers, commercial insurance companies, and youth and their families. Identified strategies reviewed in this guidance include.     

The negative effects of construction boom on urban planning and environment in Turkey: Unraveling the role of the public sector

Construction sector is usually accepted as the engine that triggers economic growth due to its strong backward and forward linkages with other sectors. On the other hand, it is also argued that increased construction activity could end up with negative economic, social and environmental impacts. The literature emphasizes the role of public sector, especially the national governments in minimizing the negative impacts of construction activity. The related arguments mostly postulate that public sector is well aware of the environmental challenges caused by construction activity and devoted to the understanding of how to improve the sustainability performance of private developers. Yet the case of Turkey provides significant evidences to question these assumptions. In this respect, this paper elaborates on the negative impacts of increased construction activity in Turkey and argues the role of public sector in intensification of the negative environmental effects through deregulation on urban planning and housing production by public agencies. The findings of the research highlight the importance of sustainable construction and verify the need for mainstreaming of sustainable construction into public policy-making at national and local levels, especially in developing countries, where most, if not all, of the future urban population growth will take place.     

Connecting the Dots in Public Management: Political Environment, Organizational Goal Ambiguity, and the Public Manager's Role Ambiguity

This article is a systematic effort to study a key theoreticalquestion from the vantage point of public sector organizationalbehavior. Most political science models, with a primary interestin democratic control of bureaucracy, study the political influenceon the bureaucracy from an agency theory perspective. Organizationbehavior literature, on the other hand, is focused largely onthe study of individual-level phenomena in private organizationsand does not incorporate political context as part of explanatorymodels. This article proposes a middle-range theory to "connectthe dots," beginning with disparate sources in the polity influencingorganizational goal ambiguity, which in turn is expected toincrease managerial role ambiguity. An empirical test, usingdata collected from a national survey of managers working instate human service agencies, supports this theoretical model.We find that certain types of political influence have an impacton organizational goal ambiguity, which in turn has a directeffect in increasing role ambiguity and also an indirect effectin increasing role ambiguity through organizational structure.     

People and their waste in an emergency context: The case of Monrovia, Liberia

Liberia has gone through civil crisis for over a decade which has resulted in the destruction of infrastructure and disruption of basic services delivery particularly in Monrovia, the capital city. Most of the 1.3 million people living in Monrovia are without adequate environmental sanitation and waste management services which situation poses a serious health risk to the residents. The current waste management service coverage is less than 20% and disposal is by indiscriminate open dumping. In 2003, there were series of outbreaks of cholera epidemics in the city during which time a total of 26,651 cases were reported with many dying.The waste management plan was initiated as an exit strategy of UNICEF following an intervention response programme to assist the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) whose capacity in this area had been crippled as a result of years of war, through the provision of support in solid waste collection and disposal.The objectives of the plan were to:

(a) Improve waste management services delivery in the city.

(b) Strengthen the ability of the MCC to plan and manage the waste services delivery.

(c) Enhance cooperation of service beneficiaries through comprehensive and effective health education and service promotional campaign.

(d) Enhance revenue generation and community participation through the promotion of private sector and CBOs/NGOs active involvement in the waste management service delivery.

The general methodology adopted for the assignment entailed the following:Desk study and review of existing reports on Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) in Monrovia and other relevant literature, consultation with stakeholders, site visits and participatory planning which aimed at soliciting the opinions of the various stakeholders involved with the respective components to capture their aspirations and experiences. It also covered collection and analysis of available information and data to facilitate the plan preparation and facilities design.The three-phased strategy (short, medium and long term) covering a period of 10 years (August 2004–December 2014), recommended a combination of technical options for collection based on the pursuit of staged development to allow for the adoption of realistically attainable standards within a framework of continuous and systematic improvements as economic conditions improved and new knowledge gained through practice. The plan sought to blend the capacity within the City Corporation with that of the private sector and NGOs/CBOs to respond to the diverse service demands of the city taking into consideration housing and infrastructural conditions, service costs and cost recovery to ensure sustainability. It also identified sources of financing and allocated financing responsibilities to facilitate effective plan implementation.     

Private child and family serving agencies: Implications of national survey results for policy and managerial practice

The national studies represented in this symposium provide the field with greater understanding of the nature of the private sector's role in child welfare and the complex interrelationships among organizational characteristics, inter-organizational dynamics, and external influences. Research findings from symposium papers are examined through the lens of a private agency manager and implications are derived for managerial practice and policy practice both within the private agency and in relation to public/private child welfare partnerships. Key managerial competencies that may be required to move agencies and the sector towards enhanced organizational performance and child welfare outcomes are discussed.     

The effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks for social service delivery

Public agencies increasingly contract with nonprofit organizations to lead community‐based networks for social service delivery. We explore the role that partnership characteristics play in the effectiveness of these networks. Using data on children and family services in Los Angeles County, we consider the impact of both the motivations for forming partnerships and the nature of the resulting partnerships on perceived outcomes for clients, interorganizational relationships, and organizational learning. We find that client outcomes and interorganizational relationships are enhanced when partnerships are formed to meet certain programmatic and organizational goals. Organizational learning, however, is affected only when partnerships are formed to enhance organizational legitimacy. Partners selected because they share common vision increase effectiveness, while those selected because there are few alternative partners decrease effectiveness. Finally, when partnerships use an interorganizational coordination mechanism, client outcomes are improved. The managerial implications of these impacts for the nonprofit sector are developed. The results lend considerable support to the role of partnership motivation and partner selection in the effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks, and specificity about the nature of that role.     

PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR MATERNAL HEALTH IN AFRICA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

ABSTRACT

The concept of public and private partnerships raises growing interest and hope from international development agencies, governments, and communities as an alternative strategy in social welfare delivery. Conceptualized as a strategy to build and capitalize on the tangible and intangible assets and resources endogenous to social organizations and communities, individually and collectively, this article embraces an asset-based approach to analyze the potency of such a framework in enhancing maternal health care delivery in developing countries such as Senegal and Mali. These countries face growing retrenchment of the state from social service delivery and scarcity of human and financial resources, which call for innovative approaches and sustainable solutions in addressing pervasive deficits in health service delivery. Drawing from empirical field research conducted in Senegal and Mali, this article examines the trend toward public–private partnerships and its gender impacts and critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities it offers conceptually and practically to address and improve equity in health care delivery, particularly safe motherhood and maternal health care delivery in developing countries.     

PPP Financing in the Road Sector: A Disequilibrium Analysis Based on the Monetary Circuit

This paper discusses public and private financing of infrastructure against the background of monetary equilibria, where money is not neutral and financing has an impact on allocation through distribution. These correspond to “disequilibrium positions” in the neoclassical barter equilibrium, as they violate some of its optimality conditions. In these contexts, evaluating welfare before and after the realisation of a project implies a comparison between two suboptimal positions. Such a comparison reveals that, contrary to a widely held view, there are not many rational arguments that may lead to prefer private financing to public financing of road infrastructure, particularly where local incomes are low. Post Keynesian analysis in general and its monetary variant of the circuit, are useful tools for the analysis of public investment policies in such a disequilibrium context. In particular, some features of the monetary circuit approach are well suited to address the economic problems raised by the analysis of public private partnerships (PPP), notably: (a) the integration of the banking sector and the recognition of its role in monetary creation by the private sector; (b) the monetary creation by the State within a macroeconomic framework fully integrating public finance; and, (c) the necessary link between uncertainty and disequilibrium. Combined with a partial equilibrium analysis based on realistic microeconomic configurations of costs and transport demand parameters, the analysis of the circuit highlights that PPP in the road sector do not add anything to the level of effective demand, being in fact the other flip of the coin of restrictive budgetary policies. PPP play a role in mobilizing part of the accumulated savings that the State is forbidden to attract directly because of debt ceilings. They have a softening effect on the Government budgetary constraints similar to those that could be reached if the Government was allowed to accrue investment like the private sector, but are a less transparent solution, because the relevant debt is not necessarily recognized in the balance sheet that services it.