Trial and Error in Privatisation: Experiences in Urban Solid Waste Collection in Accra (Ghana) and Hyderabad (India)

Although privatisation policies have become extremely popular all over the developing world, there is still only scanty empirical evidence concerning the strengths and weaknesses of different organisational arrangements in service provision or concerning the overall impact of privatisation policies in specific sectors. In this paper, the socioeconomic performance of private modes of solid waste collection are contrasted with that of public modes of service delivery, using material from two different cities, Accra and Hyderabad. Although the forms of privatisation are quite distinct, there are a number of striking similarities in outcome. At the same time, the two cases demonstrate clearly that the dynamics of privatisation policies can only be understood within their particular societal context.