The New Public Management: The future for reforms in the African water supply and sanitation sector?

In many African countries, public water utilities are undergoing reform characterized by the introduction of management principles and practices often associated with the private sector. On the one hand, these reforms, which can be placed under the umbrella of the New Public Management, have been promoted by a broad coalition of sector professionals, donors and lending agencies. On the other hand, the NPM-style reforms witnessed in many African countries appear to be the result of declining interest of the large international operators to venture into these countries. This article describes the nature of these reforms in two African countries, Uganda and Zambia. Although, especially in Uganda, the reforms appear to have been successful, this article concludes by raising some questions regarding the potential of NPM-style reforms in the African water and sanitation sectors. First of all, it is difficult to fully attribute the observed performance improvements to NPM-style reforms. Secondly, these reforms require pre-requisites, which do not exist in many African countries. Thirdly, even if reform is successful public water utilities remain dependent on the government and (international) donors to sustain performance improvements.