Lessons Learned from Public–Private Partnerships in Indonesia’s Water Sector

Abstract

This paper surveys officials involved in public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector in order to examine the differing motives of Indonesian actors in adopting PPPs. It also analyses the challenges of vertical coordination across different levels of government in PPP programs. We find that four motives for adopting PPPs are perceived differently by central government respondents and subnational government respondents. However, no significant differences are found between the two groups’ perceptions of the importance of vertical coordination problems. These results highlight the need for local capacity-building programs and improved coordination mechanisms to enhance PPP adoption and implementation in the water sector.

Tulisan ini mensurvei para pejabat yang terlibat pada Kerjasama Pemerintah-Swasta (KPS) dalam rangka menelaah berbagai motif pelaku dalam mengadopsi KPS. Kami juga menganalisis tantangan koordinasi vertikal antar berbagai tingkat pemerintahan dalam program KPS. Penulis menemukan tiga motivasi penerapan KPS diterima secara berbeda oleh responden pemerintah pusat dan responden pemerintah daerah. Namun, tidak ada perbedaan signifikan yang ditemukan di antara persepsi kedua kelompok mengenai pentingnya masalah koordinasi vertikal. Hasil-hasil yang ditemukan menggarisbawahi kebutuhan untuk program pembangunan kapasitas lokal dan mekanisme koordinasi yang lebih baik guna meningkatkan adopsi dan implementasi KPS pada sektor air.

Keywords:

• public–private partnership
• multi-level governance
• inter-governmental relations
• vertical coordination problems

JEL classification:

• H760
• H57
• H77
• O53

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This paper was prepared as part of the PhD studies of the corresponding author, Radies K. Purbo, at Griffith University, Australia. We acknowledge generous financial support from Australia Awards Indonesia (AAI) in providing a scholarship to assist in the completion of these studies. However, this paper is entirely the work of the authors, and their interpretation of the data does not represent AAI’s views or policy positions. We would also like to thank the anonymous referees of this paper for their constructive comments.

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from Radies K. Purbo upon reasonable request: [email protected]