A Systematic Approach To The Implementation Of Public-Private Partnerships In Ethiopian Federal Road Infrastructure Provision

Abstract

Despite the government’s preceding consideration to infrastructures like roads, the Ethiopian road sector is still facing notable problems such as delays, cost overruns, increment of life-cycle maintenance, quality and efficiency concerns. Public-private partnership is used as one of the tools to improve infrastructure services and gives the opportunity to use the private sector potential. Since taking public-private partnerships as an option is new for Ethiopia, careful study and systematically formulated approach for implementation is mandatory. This research aims to examine the driving factors and enabling outline; the desirable conditions to attract private sector; barriers to implementation, and measures to overcome barriers with a main goal to develop a systematic approach through implementation framework for public-private partnership. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. An extensive literature review, a questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and an interview were used as data collection tools to accomplish the objectives of the study. Qualitative and Quantitative data analyses were implemented to analyze the collected data. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 26 was utilized to analyze the quantitative data. The findings revealed scarcity in government funding, inability of public sector to assume all project risks and social strain on people due to poor road facilities as leading driving factors. Financial viability of projects, political stability, and political support and acceptability for public-private partnerships are deemed as major desirable conditions from the results. The findings also indicated lack of experience and expertise in both public and private sectors, inadequate domestic capital market, lack of transparency and accountability as major barriers; and building expertise through trainings, forming operative regulatory framework and enforcement, promotion of good governance as essential measures to overcome the barriers to implementation. The research proposed a systematic approach for the provision of federal roads through public-private partnerships as an output. The proposed approach, by a means of framework, was validated by experts from private and public sectors. The framework integrates three sections that are effective practices, effective implementation methods, and enabling context. The research output and findings contribute to the implementation and the limited knowledge of public-private partnership practices in Ethiopia