Abstract
In “Private Sector Investment in Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa Post-COVID-19: The Role of Law,” Augustine Arimoro describes the massive infrastructure deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and how, in recent years, countries in the region have attempted to bridge the huge gap in infrastructure investment through partnerships with the private sector. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unplanned and considerable public sector expenditures which have challenged governments in SSA to create and sustain efficient opportunities for private sector investment in infrastructure.
There is ongoing competition between routine maintenance spending for public infrastructure and building new roads and expanding existing ones. To examine the determinants of routine maintenance spending by state and local governments, Jiseul Kim, in “Don’t Pass Deferred Maintenance Costs to the Next Generation! The Effects of Politics on State Highway Maintenance Spending,” employed a panel data analysis covering 47 states from 1995 to 2009 to examine the effects of politics on spending for routine state highway maintenance. She found that political incentive and conflict are key factors in delaying maintenance spending and that politically divided states spend less on highway maintenance due to higher transaction costs in the policy-making process.
Returning to Africa and private participation in infrastructure delivery, Ochieng, et al. in “Reimaging public-private partnership model as hybrid: South Africa viewpoint,” examined the viability of reframing Public Private Partnership (PPP) frameworks as hybrid PPP alliances (HPPPA) which would enhance current PPP practices and enable practitioners in South Africa to deliver PPP infrastructure projects more efficiently. Utilizing semi-structured interviews and case studies to obtain empirical evidence that was compared to secondary data on how PPP practices in South Africa can be enhanced, the study found that although the South African PPP enabling legislation was adequate, project delivery was very costly due, in part, to long approval processes.
This issue concludes with a review by Richard Little, Editor of PWMP of “Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula” by Laleh Khalili. Although the focus of the book is on the Middle East, it provides a valuable update on the state of global maritime trade in the 21st century and the role that infrastructure of all types plays in enabling and sustaining global supply chains.