Partnership between Public and Private Sector in Achieving Excellence in Service Delivery: A Case Study of a Partnership between Local Government, ActionAid International and Local Community in Katakwi District.

Abstract

ONYAIT FRANCIS MICHAEL (2004-M093-10044) Partnership between Public and Private Sector in Achieving Excellence in Service Delivery: A Case Study of a Partnership between Local Government, ActionAid International and Local Community in Katakwi District. The purpose of this study is to investigate the partnership between Public and Private Sector in achieving excellence in service delivery. A case study is drawn from the partnership between Local Government, ActionAid International and the local community in Katakwi district. The specific objectives for the study included: to establish the extent to which the partnership between ActionAid International, Katakwi district local government and local communities has improved the delivery of services in Katakwi district; to examine the factors that are important drivers and interrupters of service delivery in the partnership between ActionAid International, the local government and the local community in Katakwi district. The main findings and conclusions from the study are: Overall, ActionAid International (AAI) is significantly narrowing the infrastructure deficit and food insecurity in Katakwi district which has improved greatly since 1997. There is evidently a joint partnership arrangement between AAI, Katakwi district local government and communities in the five subcounties of Ngariam, Magoro, Omodoi, Toroma and Kapujan. There is no published Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy in Uganda. The AAI programme has a weak Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategy in most of the interventions. There was a tendency of AAI interventions to emphasise on the hardware bit and little attention was done on the software, management and ownership issues. The staff and policy makers at both the district and sub-counties do not have any continuous source of up to date information on the strategies and most interventions of AAI despite the presence of the partnership arrangement. It was physically evident that, the poverty level among the majority of Katakwi district rural populations was still very high. Key Words: Partnership, Public and Private Sector, Service Delivery, Local Government, ActionAid International, Local Community, Katakwi District.