The authenticity of ‘type two’ Multistakeholder partnerships for water and sanitation in Africa: When is a Stakeholder a partner?

Abstract

Abstract This article is a study of the way in which two Type Two multistakeholder partnerships (TTPs) for water and sanitation in Africa – the UK-based Partnership for Water and Sanitation (PAWS) and the EU-based European Union Water Initiative (EUWI) – have interpreted the concepts of ‘stakeholder’ and ‘partnership’. First, after establishing our theoretical framework, we show how stakeholding and partnership are elements of the contemporary shift from government to governance, whereby responsibility for public decision-making is widened beyond politicians to include the private sector and civil society. Second, we analyse the meaning and implications of the concepts of ‘stakeholder’ and ‘partner’. Third, we apply this conceptual analysis to our two case studies – PAWS and the EUWI – and we find that in both TTPs, governments are the primary partners, while the private sector and civil society are the secondary stakeholders. We argue that in the case of PAWS, this two-tier structure is mainly unintentional, but in the case of the EUWI, it is partly strategic.