Institutional synergies in the delivery of urban upgrading services : lessons from the Slum Networking Program in Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

This thesis examines factors associated with the limited success of the Slum Networking Project (SNP) implemented in the city of Ahmedabad, India between 1995 and 2001. The SNP was conceived as a partnership between associations of slum residents, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions and the private sector with the aim to increase access to basic services in slums. This analysis reflects upon three central assumptions in the literature associated with service delivery to the urban poor through the lens of the SNP experience. First, the thesis asks why a promising and innovative public-private partnership ultimately proved unsustainable. The thesis suggests that public-private partnerships in service delivery to slums are most likely to work when: (i) the likelihood of conflict is recognized and mitigated; and (ii) participants have strong professional or economic incentives - beyond philanthropy - to make the partnership work. Second, this thesis examines how participation and community involvement under the SNP evolved in a nonlinear fashion.

(cont.) This analysis demonstrates that participation and beneficiary involvement emerged out of conflict. negotiation and with the critical, if imperfect, assistance of third-party facilitation and intermediation. Third, this thesis asks why the SNP has been unable to achieve scale through and assessment of: (i) parallel mechanisms for service delivery to the poor and the political incentives that govern these programs; and (ii) the demand for the bundling of service options under the SNP. The thesis demonstrates that the attractiveness of the SNP to slum dwellers is tempered by both the lack of flexibility in service options and competing alternative instruments for service provision, each with a strong political constituency.