4th Asia-Pacific
Urban Forum in Hanoi (12-14 October 2005)
Symposium B: Urban Environment
Participants of Symposium B discussed how partnerships between
the public and the private sector could contribute to the achievement
of the Goals related to improving the urban environment. Mr Purusottam
Man Shrestha from UNDP Nepal introduced the UNDP Public-Private
Partnership for Urban Environment-Programme (PPPUE) in Nepal.
The aim of the PPPUE programme was to increase access of urban
citizens to basic services and to contribute to the creation of
a healthy environment and the improvement of living conditions.
At present over 30 projects were being run in 10 municipalities
working on a variety of issues such as solid waste management,
transport management, green parks, drinking water, and public
toilets. Among the lessons learnt so far were the following: an
enabling environment was essential to ensure participation from
the private sector; participation of civil society was important
for the success of the majority of public-private partnership
(PPP); special emphasis had to be put on structuring PPP-projects
in a way that they were pro-poor, otherwise municipal bodies and
private operators might overlook this component; and support of
bilateral and multilateral agencies was most effective in the
form of concept awareness raising and sensitization, support for
policy formulation, facilitation, capacity building, and providing
seed money.
During the subsequent discussion it was stressed that attention
had to be paid not only to the provision of new infrastructure
and services but also to the question of their long-term maintenance.
Involving community-based organizations could be one way to ensure
the sustainability of interventions. Experience had shown, moreover,
that in order to prevent or at least reduce initial opposition
to PPP among communities and/or municipal officers, it was necessary
to include civil society actors from the beginning and increase
the awareness about long-term benefits among community members
and government employees. Furthermore, it should not be assumed
that the involvement of the private sector would automatically
lead to higher efficiency and better quality. Thus, continued
openness to learning, to adaptation, and to exploring new forms
of partnership was necessary.
