PPP Development Stage – Identifying Constraints

5.1 Why analyse constraints?

After collecting information, the municipality will need to assess the potential obstacles and constraints that the public-private partnership will face. Partnership entails compromise and a change in the usual way of doing things – therefore it is only natural that certain barriers will exist. It is important for the municipality to recognise these likely impediments and to build in strategies to cope with them in order for the partnership to function effectively. This should be done early in the process to allow time to implement the necessary changes.

In some instances, a partnership arrangement may not be an effective or realistic means of working at all. This may be due either to major macro constraints or internal challenges, as with the following examples.

• The domestic private sector, which would have been asked to provide the service, is either weak or absent, while at the same time international service providers show no interest in that particular market. In such instances, policies should be targeted toward private sector development; alternatively, involvement by NGOs could be regarded as an alternative to partnership with the private sector.
• Community organisations are extremely weak and fractured (hence they do not have the resources or capacity necessary to fully commit to a partnership); alternatively, CBOs and NGOs may be absent altogether.