Private Sector Involvement in Urban Solid Waste Collection. Performance, capacity and regulations in five cities in Ghana

This thesis focuses on the private sector involvement in solid waste collection, and the influence of private sector capacity and local governments‘ regulations on private sector performance. Private sector involvement in public service pro-vision evolved to deal with market and government failures (van Dijk, 2008b). The public sector is playing a leading role of purchaser (buyer) on behalf of citi-zens through subsidies and/or user charges, whiles the private sector is taking on an increasing role as provider (seller) of public services, and being regulated by the public sector to correct market failures associated with ‗public good‘ nature of solid waste service. It is believed that private sector involvement is a way to maintain market discipline and to bring private sector management and technical expertise and private finance into public service to achieve cost efficiency and better service provision (improve service quality) (Cointreau, 1994; Bartone, 2001; van Dijk, 2008b). Even though private sector involvement (PSI) provides opportunities for improved efficiency and service quality, the few studies on PSI in solid waste management in developing countries did not explore the private sector performance to ascertain the expected gains and the factors influencing efficiency and service quality at the firm level. The main objective of this research is to examine the evolving involvement of private sector in urban solid waste collection, and the factors explaining dif-ferences in performance of private sector companies. The main research question is: To what extent do capacity and regulation for solid waste provision influence private sector performance?

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