1. E.M. Johansson Designing Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Urban Water and Sanitation Services

2. E.M. Johansson Designing Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Urban Water and Sanitation Services
Abstract
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have during the last decades consolidated as an
instrument for reaching development objectives in many sectors across the world. A range
of donors and policy makers argue that PPPs contribute to economic growth through job
creation, technology transfer, capacity development, innovation, and that they stimulate
investment in local economies with financial injections. Critics argue that PPPs might
result in services at higher cost, of poorer quality and limited quantity for marginalised
groups. Due to divergent experiences across developed and developing countries,
controversy around the suitability of PPPs for public service provision and deviating
theoretical understandings of PPPs, this thesis aims to investigate if the theoretical
fragmentation of the concept has implications for a PPP in practice. Through a case study
of a PPP in the WaSH sector in Addis Ababa it addresses the question: How can public-
private partnerships be designed in order to contribute to sustainable urban WaSH
services? Through combining an extensive literature review with an instrumental analysis
of one WaSH PPP, the study adds to the discussion about PPP design that can be further
tested in future research and application of PPPs. The retroductive research approach
applies qualitative methods including document analysis, qualitative content analysis
and semi-structured interviews. The study finds that i) there is a contrasting
understanding about the use and format of PPPs, ii) there is a divergent understanding of
WaSH as either a public or a private good, iii) the contracts, project plans and budgets are
confidential which makes informed assessment of the effectiveness and long-term
sustainability of PPPs impossible, and iv) partial PPPs that exclude important
interventions on sanitation might negatively affect communities further downstream.
Hence, the study suggests that PPPs aiming at development goals and financed by donor
or recipient government funds need to i) ensure shared understanding of partnership
practice, ii) provide clear provisions on how to manage public goods within PPPs, iii)
apply transparent contracts and appropriate fund use, and iv) integrate WaSH services to
ensure long-term sustainability. This study argues that a mutual understanding of the
partnership and of WaSH is a crucial factor for providing sustainable WaSH services.
With this, the study exposes a need for further research about a potential contradiction
between profitability and sustainability of PPPs.
Key words: public-private partnerships/PPPs, urban water and sanitation
supply/WaSH, partnership design, Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa.