Matshidze, L B (2021) Developing a Public Private Partnerships (PPP) framework for implementing road maintenance projects in South African rural communities. PhD thesis, Heriot-Watt University, UK.
Abstract
South Africa's rural communities struggle with three main problems: lack of skills, low private sector investment, and poor infrastructure, which further undermines private investment in those communities. Even those with necessary skills lack opportunities to develop and deepen their skills fully. Consequently, their ability to become more competitive in the employment market is undermined. Skilled workforce and sustainable enterprises are the bedrock of any effort towards sustainable rural development. This study investigates the extent to which road maintenance activities contribute to skills transfer and enterprise development, with the aim of developing a simplified PPP (Public-Private Partnership) framework for rural road maintenance. The study used a qualitative research approach that employs personal and focus group interviews. Data was analysed using content and thematic analysis. The current PPP framework is not conducive to skill transfers and enterprise development through road maintenance projects. Overall, this study concludes that a small-scale PPP framework is indeed feasible, provided the cost of the transactions is lower. The study recommends that government should use the proposed framework from this research to bring about rural skills transfer and enterprise development. This study focused only on rural road maintenance; hence, this may influence the generalisability of the results to other sectors or service categories. Furthermore, this research explicitly focused on the South African PPP framework.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Bowles, G and Ogunlana, S |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | market; private sector; skills; workforce; employment; government; investment; public private partnerships; public-private partnership; thematic analysis; focus group; qualitative research; partnership; South Africa; interview |
| Index terms: | employment, private sector, partnership, private investment, public private partnership, focus group, interview, rural development, South Africa, thematic analysis, qualitative research |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, contractual arrangements, Geography, land use and regional development, research design and methodology, data collection methods, management, methods and analysis, partnership management, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Procurement, Human Resources, Urban Studies, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here