NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN URBAN SOLID WASTE IN DEVELOPING WORLD 27
relationship between decentralised government and urban productivity remains far
from clear. A more efficient and empowered local government might indeed succeed
in creating a more attractive business environment by improving infrastructural facil-
ities and reducing red tape. At the same time, however, it can very well lead to a reduc-
tion of access of the poor to urban land, and may even, as a result of more aggressive
and systematic application of regulations and controls, constrain the room to
manoeuvre of informal enterprises (Jones and Ward, 1994: 44). Waste pickers and
itinerant buyers of recyclables, for example, may be confronted by more severe
harassment despite their contribution to a cleaner environment and a reduction of
waste volumes.
Such considerations, however, have not really prevented widespread adoption of
decentralisation policies all over the developing world (Helmsing, 2000). In fact, the
decentralisation idea was strongly promoted by major donors as well as from within
civil society. However, political commitment of governments to a reform that chal-
lenges their power basis often leaves a lot to be desired. Therefore, the implementation
of decentralisation policies is fraught with difficulties – slowness in reorganisation of
central ministries, delay in the design of new procedures, obstruction in the transfer of
fiscal powers etc. – and progresses much slower than anticipated (Burgess et al.,
1997). Despite decentralisation many local governments are still in a position where
they lack the resources, the authority, clear and consistent mandates and sufficiently
trained and supported staff needed to effectively enhance the development of their
communities. Such shortcomings bear upon the predicaments of public-private and
public-community partnerships in urban basic service delivery as local authorities are
not automatically capable of delivering their share of the agreement. Negative experi-
ences may even evoke policies of recentralisation, like for example in Accra (Ghana)
where the failure of local authorities to adequately address the problem of solid waste
collection has incited central government to step in and overrule the former
(Obirih-Opareh and Post, 2001).
2.4. PRIVATISING URBAN SOLID WASTE COLLECTION
Governments privatise services for a multitude of reasons. Outside pressures from the
Bretton Woods institutions as part of the overall structural adjustment reforms have
been reinforced by domestic changes, notably a widespread dissatisfaction with the
government’s inability to properly manage the economy and provide appropriate serv-
ices. Now that market principles have been (re-)installed in most national economies,
private businessmen are expected to seize the opportunity. In the literature, the private
sector is endowed with qualities such as political independence, economic rationality,
efficiency, dynamism and innovation, qualities that make it measure up favourably to
public sector enterprise. However, it would be extremely naive to take these salutary
effects of privatisation for granted. First of all, empirical proof that privatisation
actually works is still rather flimsy and largely drawn from experiences in the Western