Privatization programmes in the developing world have often been assessed on the grounds of efficiency. In recent years a more critical literature with a focus on the distributional and poverty impact of privatization has emerged. This article contributes to that literature in two ways. First,...

According to current estimates, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the 1.1 billion people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 will only be achieved by 2040, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Why will it take this long? Because tariffs are unaffordable and...

In the late 1990s the bilateral and multilateral development agencies placed increasing emphasis on poverty reduction in developing countries. This emphasis led to the establishment by the United Nations of the so-called International Development Targets for poverty reduction. The achievement of...

This paper provides a critical analysis of the recent developments in the incomplete contracts theory and its conclusions for privatisation of public services. Drawing on a case study of management contract for urban water services in Ghana and highlighting the flaws in the theory, the article...

Many African economies have experienced rather dismal industrial development since the 1980s. The consensus is that African firms lack competitiveness in a world with increasing trade openness. What determines competitiveness? A well-known explanation is that resource endowments in Africa favour...

Recent development literature has placed priority on poverty reduction, and on possible growth enhancement from a more equal distribution of assets and income. At the same time, empirical work consistently shows that economic growth is no more than distribution neutral. In that context, this...

According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), 924 million people lived in slums in 2001. Population growth in these settlements is much greater than in other urban areas. The estimates suggest that this figure may rise to 1.5 billion by 2020 (Payne, 2005). This rapid...

I. Introduction Public water supply systems have increasingly been subject to commercialisation or corporatisation in the developing world. This method is sometimes used as a surrogate for privatisation in circumstances where existing systems of provision are unattractive for multinational water...