Design of Public-Private Partnership for Waste Management in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

Abstract: Waste management is a growing concern in rapidly urbanizing developing countries and Haiti is noexception. Excessive amounts of improperly discharged waste endangers unique tropical environment, appears to bea reason of fast spread of epidemic diseases, increases risk of floods during the hurricane season and contributes toclimate change. Due to various historical, economic, natural and socio-political reasons, public sector of Haitianstate is not able to provide decent waste management service. Public-private partnerships are a highly-advocateddevelopmental tool for involvement of private sector in delivery of public service, relocation of stress fromgovernment budgets, privatization and decentralization. The study was conducted in order to suggest an option ofPublic-Private Partnership project that would suit the context of Haiti. In compliance with the principles ofsustainable development and in order to increase energy self-sufficiency, waste-to-energy approach is considered asa suitable option for waste management delivery. Public-Private Partnership is understood as a social system,models of partnership are created with the use of system theory approach. Theoretical base is complemented withthe concept of PPP and Waste Management Theory. This descriptive single case-study is a examining the choice oftechnology for energy recovery from waste, degree of privatization and general problematic issues that might occurduring the implementation of the project in the context of Haiti. Small-scale anaerobic digestion through concessioncontracting with service providers was picked up as the most favorable option after the analysis of surveys amongqualified experts, local citizens and literature review on the matter. It was also concluded that lack of publicmanagement capacity is a major obstacle for implementation of public-private partnership for waste management inthe context of Haiti.