Public private partnership in road transport sector in Botswana

The paper discusses the significance of public private partnership at micro levels in the field of public transport in order to maximize the accruing benefits. It also mentions constraints that the developing nations in Africa encounter to divert funds towards infrastructure projects when they have challenges to meet in social sectors. The benefits that the African nations can derive through partnerships are also mentioned. Regional co-operation as envisaged among countries of southern Africa through Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the SADC Protocol on Transport are discussed. The initiative of Government to foster Public Private Partnership in Botswana is explained. The rural subsidy scheme and measures towards micro level public private partnership are highlighted. The paper also covers suggested steps for effective implementation of PPPs in Botswana. The paper is concluded with a mention of benefits that PPPs can bring about. INTRODUCTION Man, as a social animal, is always on the move to fulfil personal and societal obligations. Each one of his movements outside domestic environs results in a trip that is no longer his exclusive prerogative. The domain of transportation planner starts right at the doorstep of every single individual. The individual trips, when aggregated, complicate the planning of the transportation needs of a town or a region. The complexities multiply when resources made available are scant – more often in underdeveloped and developing countries. Transportation problems of developing countries differ from that of developed nations, whose networks and infrastructure facilities were developed over the years with their own resources. Limited resources and economic constraints of the governments whose priorities are often pronounced towards providing basic amenities in social sector than improving communications – especially in Africa often hamper the growth of transportation systems in the third world countries. One of the fundamental principles of provision of transportation facilities is to create a living city and region on a human scale – that is accessible to everyone and providing a good quality of life through basic amenities to its citizens. This vision is shared by developed and developing nations. Although transport’s potential to meet travel demand needs dynamic progression for effective implementation, it is evident that such progression has its price. A number of transport technologies implied high-energy consumption and required substantial capital inputs in production and operation. As a result, travel became expensive to ordinary road users. This has created imbalances across the population groups whose affordability of meeting transportation cost requirements varied across the spectrum. It often hindered the trip making abilities and resulted in reduced number of motorized trips. One of the key elements of development strategies is to achieve sustained economic growth by encouraging the private sector to increase and improve transport investment and operations, with an aim to provide an appropriate and affordable standard of accessibility to locations of importance of daily life. It is essential that developing countries draw from the experiences of developed nations in encouraging public private participation in transport sector to facilitate optimization of resources available to the governments towards development. IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA The pace of development that the rest of the world takes pride in the field of communications – document, voice and physical – is a mirage that Africa is still chasing with limited or no resources at disposal of the incumbent governments. It has become imperative for progress of countries to pay attention to the most important of the communications – the physical communication of men and materials. Governments in Africa are now aiming at better policy co-ordination between public and private sectors to seek alternative means of funding to ensure infrastructure in the field of transportation is developed, operated and maintained. The Public Private Partnership in the field of transportation, in general, is a contractual agreement between public and private sectors aimed at better delivery of transportation projects. The partnerships that the governments in Africa would enter into would help in accelerated implementation of projects with new approaches and better management techniques that are at the disposal of private sector. As the private sector has the capability to invest in terms of resources to handle large and complex projects, the resource-strapped public agencies have an option to prioritize their social commitments. Participation of private sector has social benefits too as it helps in empowerment of local contractors and consultants and paves a way for entrepreneurial development. This helps the governments in Africa to plan their resources for better use elsewhere. The Southern African Development Community, popularly known as SADC, is one such organisation that brought under its umbrella the governments towards regional co-operation in southern African. REGIONAL CO-OPERATION IN TRANSPORT SECTOR IN SOUTHERN AFRICA The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a body consisting of 14 nations of southern Africa with headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana. A SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (The Protocol or Transport Protocol), came into effect in July 1998 forming the basis of reforms in transport sector in southern Africa (InfraAfrica, 2001). The Protocol formulated objectives for member countries of the region with regard to transport, communications and meteorology. It suggested policies and strategies by which the objectives could be attained. As a part of reforms, a framework was stipulated for private and public sector partnership in the region. It states that mobilization of private sector investment and expertise in support of infrastructure development, operation and maintenance is to be given a priority. The private sector is seen to offer exciting alternatives and opportunities in terms of project appraisals, ensuring rigorous risk analysis and a whole lot of issues that cover almost the whole gambit of projects in transport sector. The Protocol listed a number of key issues that are strategically important to secure greater involvement from the private sector. Some of the factors include the following: 1. Public owned enterprises in many cases are responsible for delivering services that have performed poorly resulting in disenchanted consumers and at times the governments. 2. Constraints on traditional sources of finance for publicly owned enterprises are addressed by recommending that the partnerships be seen to be a useful way in bridging the gap between the enormous requirements for public investment and limited budgets. 3. Partnerships are also seen as tools in offering non-financial benefits like private style management, cost recovery whilst allowing the public sector a degree of control over projects. 4. The private sector’s ability to ensure rigorous risk analysis (including identification, assessment, and allocation risks) and strategies to mitigate are well recognized. 5. The private sector has capabilities to enter in to joint ventures with related benefits in terms of sharing of risks and general capacity building. 6. The private sector has capacity to introduce new and improved approaches and could facilitate increased efficiency in project operations. 7. Private sectors have ability to adhere to conditions of agreement and allocation of responsibilities, time and cost frameworks as well as associated standards / specifications. 8. As the profits of like investments generally materialize only in the latter stages of the projects lifetime, one can be reasonably assured of proper arrangements and longterm commitment to the operation and maintenance of created assets from private