Promoting High Performance in SOEs: Lessons from Africa By Sanford V. Berg and William T. Muhairwe 1

Infrastructure for developing nations raises concerns regarding citizen access, affordability, service quality, and network expansion. Historically, state-owned enterprises have tended to provide water service services, but performance has not been strong. However, public provision of water utility services can be efficient when management follows sound principles. Developing information systems and rewarding good performance requires that a culture of excellence be nurtured and sustained. The infrastructure reform stimulated by new leadership at Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Company is used to illustrate the links among fundamental elements of organizational transformation.

[1]  Uwe Deichmann,et al.  Citizen Feedback and Delivery of Urban Services , 2007 .

[2]  Merilee S. Grindle,et al.  Divergent cultures? When public organizations perform well in developing countries , 1997 .

[3]  F. Nunan,et al.  Empowerment and Institutions: Managing Fisheries in Uganda , 2006 .

[4]  K. Sansom.  Government engagement with non‐state providers of water and sanitation services , 2006 .

[5]  Klaus Deininger,et al.  Does Greater Accountability Improve the Quality of Public Service Delivery? Evidence from Uganda , 2005 .

[6]  Economic Regulation of Urban Water and Sanitation Services , 2007 .

[7]  William L. Megginson,et al.  Forthcoming, Journal of Economic Literature FROM STATE TO MARKET: A SURVEY OF EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON PRIVATIZATION , 2000 .

[8]  Sam Kayaga,et al.  Strategic planning for water utilities in developing countries , 2007 .

[9]  P. R. Lankao,et al.  Paradoxes of Decentralization: Water Reform and Social Implications in Mexico , 2006 .

[10]  Naren Prasad,et al.  Privatisation Results: Private Sector Participation in Water Services after 15 Years , 2006 .

[11]  M. Shirley,et al.  Information, Incentives, and Commitment: An Empirical Analysis of Contracts between Government and State Enterprises , 1997 .

[12]  Timo J. Santalainen,et al.  Transformation of state-owned enterprises in Estonia and India: An examination of the relative influences of cultural variations , 2006 .

[13]  S. Berg,et al.  Using Internal Incentive Contracts to Improve Water Utility Performance: The Case of Uganda's NWSC , 2007 .

[14]  John D. Dilulio.  Principled Agents: The Cultural Bases of Behavior in a Federal Government Bureaucracy , 1994 .

[15]  S. Berg,et al.  Conflict Resolution: Benchmarking Water Utility Performance , 2007 .

[16]  S. Berg,et al.  State-Owned Enterprises: Nwsc's Turnaround in Uganda , 2008 .