Developing a public – private partnership governance framework to drive infrastructure development: the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency

Abstract

Zimbabwe has been characterised by a continuous deterioration in existing public infrastructure due to the decade-long economic downturn. Despite persuasive heuristics and pragmatic promotion for the use of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to infuse dynamism into public sector infrastructure development, little is known about their progress in Zimbabwe's state universities. The study intended to develop a Public-Private Partnership Governance Framework for Zimbabwe to Drive Infrastructure Development. A mixed research methodology was adopted, pragmatism was the research philosophy and case study of ZIDA. Abductive research approaches and concurrent transformative research designs were used and were collected using questionnaire and interview. The population was 123 employees at head office in different departments; the researcher used purposive sampling to determine simple size of 80 people. 75 questionnaires were returned out of the 80 questionnaires distributed and as a result the response rate was 93.75%. SPSS 20.0 package was used to analyse the data. The study concluded that the existing PPP models of ZIDA, included Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), and Equity. The major challenges for the current PPPs were regulatory uncertainty, financial constraints, corruption and governance issues, stakeholder engagement, political and economic conditions. The study recommended that to develop a framework that includes the voices of all relevant stakeholders—government entities, private sector players, civil society, and local communities, there should be defined clear roles and responsibilities for ZIDA and other governmental agencies. It was further recommended that further research be undertaken on the factors affecting the drive for Infrastructure Development in the public sector in an unstable environment such as in Zimbabwe.