Regulation and facilitation of public‐private partnerships: The MSP policy framework

This article describes the Municipal Services Partnership (MSP) Policy developed by the Department of Constitutional Development (DCD) of the Ministry for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development of South Africa to help local authorities respond to the great demand for improvement of municipal services. The MSP policy was developed by the DCD, utilising consultative policy making. It defines municipal services partnerships and typical contractual forms of MSPs, and also identifies gaps and constraints in existing South African law that can make implementation of MSPs unnecessarily difficult or more costly for local authorities and service consumers. The policy creates a framework for competitive procurement of MSP contracts and, finally, it describes the capacity needs of local authorities to deal effectively with MSP planning, procurement and implementation, and identifies new and expanded institutional roles at the local and national levels to support local authorities that wish to engage in MSPs     

Public‐private partnerships for waste management: Challenges for policies and procedures

Recently, all essential services in South Africa have been the focus of major efforts to ensure equitable access. This focus is quickly intensifying at all levels of government, as greater attention is directed at global environmental issues and at removing the imbalances in the socio‐economic conditions of the past. Unfortunately for solid waste management, unlike other essential services, this is happening at a time of declining financial resources, fewer national programmes and increasing regulation. Many municipalities in South Africa are turning to public‐private partnerships (PPPs) as a way of addressing the growing municipal solid waste management problem, especially with regard to extending services to previously disadvantaged, low‐income communities. This article seeks to define relevant issues, clarify the use of PPPs and generally suggest a way forward for local municipalities committed to meeting the challenges of maintaining and expanding solid waste management services.     

The municipal infrastructure investment unit: The government's PPP‐enabling strategy

The South African government is committed to helping local governments make full use of service delivery ‘partnerships’ in improving the quality of essential urban services for its citizens, as so many other governments are now doing worldwide. A key part in this effort is being played by the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit (MIIU), a not‐for‐profit company established in 1998 for the purpose of using grant funding and technical help to guide the process of preparing and negotiating concession contracts and other forms of municipal service partnerships at the local level across South Africa. This article covers the MIIU's operations and rationale in an effort to describe one important way in which the government is responding to the challenges associated with extending basic municipal service provision to all of its citizens.     

Sub-Saharan Africa's rising public debt stock: Is there a cause for concern?

The study investigated public debt sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by testing the reaction of the primary balance to positive and negative shocks in public debts in a panel of 45 SSA countries. The study adopts the innovative nonlinear fiscal reaction function and the dynamic panel threshold model to account for the potential asymmetric phenomenon in the public debt series. In line with extant studies, the study found that public debts in SSA are weakly sustainable and there is a highly procyclical fiscal policy bias in SSA countries, particularly in resource-rich countries, indicating that governments' fiscal policy responses are expansionary during economic upturns and contractionary during recessions, which may aggravate recessions and worsen debt situations across SSA. For robustness, the study compares the results with emerging and developed economies. The results indicate that in advanced economies, public debt is sustainable and that fiscal policy response is countercyclical. The research and policy implications are discussed.     

Health system reform in China: What role for private insurance?

The purpose of the present paper is to show that much of the literature on health economics and on the international experience with different forms of health system organization can be interpreted as supporting the idea that reliance on an unregulated market mechanism for organizing the production and financing of health services is likely to result in major problems both with respect to efficiency and equity. However, reliance on a centralized “command-and-control” model managed by government has also been shown to entail problems in practice. For this reason I argue that the best option at China's current state of development may be a compromise model in which competing private providers are given an important role, both for the production of health services and in the provision of health insurance, but in which the government intervenes (through regulation and direct provision) in such a way as to attain both a high degree of equity of access to health care, and to avoid the most significant forms of “market failure” that would arise in an unregulated private system.     

Public–private partnerships in metropolitan government: perspectives on governance,value for money and the roles of selected stakeholders

This paper discusses the nature of public–private partnerships (PPPs) and their governance, with specific reference to the types of risks involved and how these are managed. The paper investigates whether there is any regime responsible for providing resources and enforcing contracts and service standards to make metropolitan governments efficient, effective and economical in designing, managing and exercising control over PPP ventures. In this context, the roles of selected stakeholders are discussed. The basic assumption of this paper is that metropolitan government could improve local economic growth through PPPs when the nature and governance of PPPs and the legalities underpinning them are thoroughly understood.     

Education and development: The role of non‐formal education,especially in developing countries

Education plays an important role in development, especially in a developing country. To develop the skills and knowledge of the large percentage of the people outside the reach of formal education, and to offer education programmes which can easily adapt and respond to the specific and immediate needs of a developing community, out‐of‐school programmes should be considered.

This article explains how non‐formal education, that is organized and systematic education offered outside the framework of the formal education system, could complement formal education, and should be organized to support integrated, community‐based development Briefly discussed guidelines for the planning of non‐formal education are the horizontal and vertical integration of all activities, extensive community involvement, a self‐help approach, the use of front line workers and the maximum utilization of existing facilities.     

Structural change in the economy and energy needs: A South African perspective∗

The paper reviews economic structural changes and the resultant effect on the demand for energy. Seen globally, structural change is determined primarily by:

• shifts In the sectoral contributions

• technological development

• increase in the urban population

• redistribution of income.

The South African situation is analysed with respect to the following factors:

• changes In sectoral energy use as a result of the development of the economy away from an agrarian economy towards a more industrialised economy

• urbanisation and the changing energy consumption patterns especially with regard to increased food and water, housing, domestic energy, transport and waste disposal needs

• redistribution of income and projected future demand for energy.

The importance of structural change in planning for future energy needs is emphasised.     

Small‐family farm types: Examples from Northern Namibia and implications for agrarian reform in South Africa

Small‐farmer types in southern Africa differ significantly in terms of factor‐input patterns and support structures. On peasant family farms (PFF) cash input costs are very low, non‐household labour is sourced largely from communal work groups through kinship ties, and support services needed to sustain production are minimal. By contrast, on commercial family farms (CFF) cash input costs are high, little non‐family labour is used and strong support services are necessary. The first objective of this article is to point out and emphasise the different situations which exist in these two small‐family farm types, based on data from farm studies in Northern Namibia. The second objective is to extract the implications of these differences in relation to development paths under land reform. This is based on experiences of the outcome of land reform in Latin America. It is concluded that the agrarian situation in post‐land reform South Africa will comprise a mix of large‐scale commercial farms and small‐scale farms of both the PFF and CFF types. It will be necessary to recognise the existence of each of these types and their interrelationships, to monitor their development, to understand their different production situations and to cater for their different needs.     

Public assets and services delivery in South Africa: Is it really a success?

Poverty alleviation remains a pressing concern for South African policy-makers. Implementing effective anti-poverty policies requires a clear understanding of the nature and extent of poverty. The extant literature on South African poverty dynamics shows a decline in the headcount ratio over the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, the prior research largely adopts a narrow money-metric approach, or uses multi-dimensional indices that include welfare indicators based on private assets (e.g. television sets) or those that are provided publicly (e.g. access to water). This paper uses multiple correspondence analysis to measure non-income poverty trends for the period 2005–12. The novelty in this undertaking lies in an attempt to include a measure of the perceived quality of public assets and services to complement the standard indices. This provides some measure of ‘success’ of public service delivery, accounting for both changes in access and quality.     

The main findings of the district pilot project of labour‐intensive road construction and maintenance in Botswana and the implications for similar projects in South Africa

Unemployment has been identified as one of the main problems confronting South Africa. Recently, in order to improve rural infrastructure and create employment, several pilot projects of rural road construction have been initiated in South Africa. In such a context it is considered that attention should be drawn to a pilot project carried out some time ago in Botswana to examine the potential of labour‐intensive methods in the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

The main conclusion of the pilot project was that labour‐intensive methods were viable, although attention had to be paid to several critical factors. In 1982, following its evaluation of the pilot project, the Government of Botswana decided that over the next five years the technical and organisational methods developed during the pilot project should be replicated throughout Botswana.

After a brief survey of the background to the project, the paper summarises several important features of the pilot project and its main findings. The paper closes with some comments on the implications of this pilot project for those currently underway in South Africa.     

Regional indentities and inter‐regional dialogue: The European union and the ASEM process

ASEM highlights the importance of looking at inside and outside, not as separate domains, but as parts of the same whole. This leads us to the broader lessons for the study of regionalization in the global political economy and for inter‐regional relations in particular. There is obviously a place for reading processes such as ASEM in terms of complex bargains that emerge from the material interests of the participants. After all, it is apparent from the literature emerging from (the former) DGI that this is what the actors think is going on. But this leads us to think about the possibilities for acquiring a broader understanding. The strategy proposed here suggests that there is some utility in applying techniques of ‘double reading.’     

The debate on the future of the population census: Relevance for South Africa?

The cancellation of the Canadian census long-form questionnaire in 2010 and its subsequent reinstatement in 2015 resulted in a vigorous international debate on the future of the mandatory census. Questions concerning state invasions of personal privacy, party political interference and public trust and cooperation in state data-gathering were raised. As a result, alternative forms of demographic data collection were explored and the experiences of other countries examined. National population registers and non-mandatory surveys offered alternatives, but each had their own distinct disadvantages. South Africa has continued to conduct mandatory detailed censuses since 1994 and the enumerations have encountered little political opposition because they are presented as essentially nation-building exercises providing credible and relevant data, upon which national policies may be based and monitored. At present there is little incentive to change the current format of statistical collection in the absence of a viable alternative.     

Changing balance between private and public sectors in the Russian big business in 2000–2013: the subjective approach

This paper is a direct continuation of [1]. However, in this work, a subjective aspect of the topic is considered, not the industrial. In other words, we have analyzed how the privatization, nationalization, and consolidation of state-owned assets affected major players, i.e., the biggest companies and integrated business groups (IBG). In addition, the paper attempts to evaluate the results of these processes from the point of view of the national economy. At least 6 years have passed since major events related to these processes happened and the government declared the main goals. Now it is possible to sum up first results. The studied period is 2000–2013.     

The emerging non‐profit sector in Japan: Recent changes and prospects

This paper hopes to map out the historical, legal and political contexts of the non profit sector and explore some of the recent developments which have helped expand voluntary activities and promote the changes the NPO sector has been experiencing over the last five years or so. Then, the paper goes on to raise some of the issues which need to be addressed for the further development of the NPO sector.     

Monetary policy and financial stability: what role for the interest rate?

We propose an ex-post analysis of the behavior of a central bank confronted with financial turmoil. For this purpose, we rely on a DSGE model that combines credit market frictions with a boom and bust scenario on the price of capital. Within this framework, we seek to understand the extent to which central banks could have intervened to limit the effects of the financial bubble and its bursting. We compare the results obtained in terms of economic stabilization under a simple Taylor rule with those of an augmented rule that takes into account a financial indicator. We show that a central bank using as sole instrument the interest rate cannot simultaneously improve inflation and credit cycles.     

The management of South Africa’s landfills and waste pickers on them: Impacting lives and livelihoods

Effective management of waste and the promotion and management of recycling activities are necessary for sustainable and liveable cities. A key but unrecognised element in promoting recycling is the efforts of waste pickers who make a living from recycling mainline recyclables. This article aims to describe the approaches used on 10 landfills in South Africa to manage waste pickers’ access to recyclables and their daily activities on the landfills. A multiple case study design and cross-case analysis were used in this study. The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) was used to analyse and explain the data. The results showed that waste management policies and practices directly influence the waste pickers’ access to recyclable waste and their livelihoods. Finally, some inclusionary and exclusionary practices are highlighted that could guide inclusive, participatory and co-productive practices for waste pickers in South Africa towards increased recognition, access, dignity and income.