Public-Private Community Partnerships in Infrastructure for the Poor
Author(s)
Franceys, Richard; Weitz, Almud
Abstract
Analysis of the 20 studies confirmed the limited ability of existing public entities to reach the poor. The essential need for some level of service provision was being met by a mixture of poor quality self-provision, by informal private entities often at high, unregulated prices, or by innovative civil society involvement experiencing difficulties in scaling-up. A number of the new public private approaches were found to be successfully reforming the direct public providers; however these were usually serving poor people only by default through the general improvement in performance. A very limited number of public private community partnerships with international operators were found to be dramatically improving service to some of the poor, with better quality at lower price, but often with long-term uncertainty over contractual stability.
