Abstract
This research is about Public-Private Partnership within the disciplines of public administration and project execution. The concept of PPPs, constitutes involved collaboration between government entities and private sector companies to develop essential infrastructure and public services, such as water and sanitation systems. Developing economies usually use PPPs to leverage private capital and expertise to carry out infrastructure development. However, the outcomes of these partnerships are sometimes inconsistent. This study investigates the factors influencing the success of PPPs on a national level, as well as on a project level, focusing on water projects.
Many countries around the world have created detailed guidelines and frameworks detailing how PPPs should be executed and operated, but projects often still run into problems; failure to deliver or higher costs than expected. This leads to wasted public money, delays in getting important services to people, which makes the public doubt these partnerships. This research addresses the problem of why robust legal and regulatory framework alone does not guarantee successful PPP outcomes. Identifying the critical success factors other than the legal text, is vital for ensuring these partnerships achieve their intended development goals and provide reliable public services.
This study uses a comparative case study approach to analyse the relationship between the national enabling environment and project-level execution in PPPs. The study focuses on water projects in three BRICS economies, namely India, Brazil and South Africa only.
The analysis was divided into two sections. Firstly, it assesses each country's performance across six fundamental national enablers: strength of Political Support, coherence of the Legal and Regulatory Framework, effectiveness of Institutional Capacity, degree of Economic Stability, level of Public Interest and trust and the scale of Infrastructure Needs. Secondly, it evaluates the implementation of seven critical practices within the case study projects: thoroughness of Project Feasibility studies, transparency of Procurement Processes, clarity of Project Performance Metrics, effectiveness of Stakeholder Engagements, robustness of Regulatory Oversight, strength of Corporate and Project Governance and fairness in the Allocation of Risk...