Nigeria is rich country in terms of natural resources, It has one of Africa's largest economy, having being endowed with massive natural, human, renewable and non-renewable resources. With a population of about 160 million people which creates a large market for goods and services, rich soil suitable for commercial agriculture, deposits of natural resources including crude-oil, natural-gas, tin, and rock-salt, and cash crops including cocoa, kola-nut, cotton, groundnut and timber, Nigeria has the potential of being one of the largest economy globally and the political hegemony in Africa.1 However, the country has not been able to achieve sustainable development as a result of the deplorable state of infrastructure. Nigeria is confronted with the problem of immense infrastructure deficit which adversely affect national income, cost of production and distribution of goods and services, reduces Foreign Direct Investment(FDI), and result in poverty, unemployment, frequent youth unrest and fall in the general living standards.2 The poor state of infrastructure assets in the country is traceable primarily to the neglect by government and poor maintenance during the transition period from military rule to civilian administration. In an attempt to recover from the infrastructure decay, privatization was commenced in the late 90s through to the 21st century. Yet, there was no commendable improvements as the quality of public services dropped continuously and most of the enterprises were eventually wounded up as a result of corruption, poor maintenance and lack of skilled expertise.3 Furthermore, as a result of budget deficit caused by contraction in fiscal space, and continuous increase in demand for public services which correlates with population growth and rural-urban migration, public financing cannot facilitate bridging of the infrastructure gap. Also, having realized the success of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in other climes, government adopted PPP in 2005 to aid transition of the state of national infrastructure through private involvement in infrastructure financing. Unfortunately, for well over one decade of adopting PPP, Nigeria has not witnessed any commendable changes in her infrastructure assets. The poor performance of PPP in country has been traced to several factors including corruption, lack of transparency, and undue political interference. Central to the factors is the problem of regulatory deficit.4 Consequently, this study will examine the Nigerian PPP legal and regulatory framework to ascertain the problems responsible for the inability of the infrastructure financing technique to facilitate sustainable development through successful infrastructure projects. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

The prioritisation of private funds in financing public infrastructures due to limited financial resources available through the public sector has raised concerns about the protection of human rights and environment considering that the main goal of corporations is to generate as much profit as possible. The presence of the World Bank Group in the mix is to strike a balance between these competing needs by introducing the concept of sustainable finance through technical assistance and the adoption of standards that are integrated with the concept to influence the behaviour of state and non-state actors in their investment practices, especially in the developing world. This study employs a legal doctrinal approach in providing a critical analysis on the authoritativeness of the instruments adopted by the World Bank Group based on the established doctrines to derive logical conclusions from primary and secondary sources. It enquires into the work of the World Bank Group to explain the potential acceptance of the concept of sustainable finance and its impacts in infrastructure development and international investment law. This study found that the interactions established in the arrangement of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) among all various actors in international law is the key to internalise the concept of sustainable finance since it could form a community of legal practice adhering to the same standards. Furthermore, the compatibility between the standards adopted by the World Bank Group and the provisions found in the traditional sources of international law on human rights and environment could improve state and non-state actors’ compliance with those existing norms.

National calls for improving the prospects of STEM workforce development and broadening participation in STEM place the focus of change within the education system. Despite many efforts towards integrating STEM, and specifically engineering, into pre-college settings, mechanisms for change in schools towards these goals remain underdeveloped. While collaborative solutions involving multiple organizations across sectors towards addressing this complex problem appear promising, more work is needed to develop a critical understanding of the processes involved when such different organizations come together to collaborate towards a social goal. Based in an effort to bring more theoretical literature into the discourse around school-university-industry partnership, the purpose of this research is to contribute to a better understanding of how K-12 STEM interorganizational relationships develop in their initial stages by focusing on the collaborative processes and structures and to develop implications for future success of such collaborations. To accomplish this, I used a multiple case study design to investigate the collaborative processes that emerged in the first year of the partnership within VT PEERS (Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools). I centered my analysis on select adult stakeholders in the collaborative problem who were also programmatic participants including teachers, administrators, industry partners, and university affiliates. Using pre-year and post-year semi-structured interviews with these stakeholders, I characterized the collaborative processes in the first year of the program. Interpretation of results comparing across cases indicated considerations for education and organizational theory literature as well as implications for collaborative practice. Findings confirmed the emergent and negotiated nature of interorganizational collaboration and highlighted the importance of managing communication and reflection in partnership. Organizational culture may impact capacity building when organizations come together towards a complex social goal, particularly when industry is involved, and autonomy and operational issues within the school system and teaching can make collaborating with schools particularly challenging. When organizations come together towards a social goal centered around one of the collaborative partners, equality in exchange may not be a good measure of success. With the caveat that communication needs to be well managed to build credibility among partners, an unequal but equitable exchange of resources may be appropriate in collaborations towards a social goal. While it is tempting to continue to measure quality in interorganizational collaborations narrowly by the outcomes produced, a macro-level look at the collaborative processes involved enables collaborative stakeholders to be intentional about designing for future success. / Doctor of Philosophy / National calls for a higher number and greater diversity of STEM professionals place the burden of change on school systems. Despite some successful efforts, there still remains significant challenges to making change in schools. Partnerships between private companies, universities, and school systems appear promising, but current work is limited in its conclusions. There is a need to reflect more critically on the process of how organizations build relationships in addressing social goals if we are to gain a better understanding of how to make these partnerships successful. To address this, I conducted pre-year and post-year interviews with teachers, administrators, industry partners, and university affiliates during the first year of VT PEERS (Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools). Because the project took place in three different rural school counties, I looked for similarities and differences across the collaborations in each county to build a broader understanding and develop implications for other partnerships. Findings from this study led to several important takeaways about collaborating across organizations towards goals in K-12 STEM. First, collaboration is a process and initial plans will change and develop over time. Reflecting on this and keeping open communication through changes potentially equips collaborators to better weather the ups and downs of partnership. Second, the nature and flexibility of an organization’s work environment impacts how much tension they feel between getting their everyday work done and contributing to the collaboration. Third, unequal costs and benefits may be acceptable in a collaboration as long as collaborators are in agreement on the balance. Again, communication is important to build trust and understanding among partners for a healthy balance to be achieved. Overall, taking a birds-eye view of collaborative processes allows collaborators to be more intentional about designing for future success.

Increasingly, states are relying on creative financing and asset management to maintain and improve the nation's transportation infrastructure since budgetary challenges constrain potential options. One method of tapping into alternative sources of capital is the public-private partnership (PPP or P3). A public-private partnership is a long-term contractual agreement in which the public sector authority assigns a traditionally public responsibility (such as operations and/or financing) to the private sector participant, in hopes of achieving mutual benefit. First employed in the contemporary era in the late 1980's by California and Virginia, the public-private partnership has continued to become a more popular delivery method. A thorough review of the literature on the subject reveals both academic and institutional material covering a wide variety of P3 topics. Garvin's (2007) P3 Equilibrium Framework supplemented the current body of knowledge by building upon past research to better analyze the performance of existing and proposed PPP's or serve as a resource when developing future projects. The Framework allows the user to assess a project or program and determine its potential for producing desirable results. This research utilizes case studies to gain further insight into P3 projects and programs, as well as the performance of the original P3 Equilibrium Framework. The cases include the evolution of legislation in California and Virginia, and four projects that resulted from these programs: the State Route 91 Express Lanes, Dulles Greenway, Pocahontas Parkway, and failed I-81 Improvement proposals. Application of the original framework to the case studies led to several refinements. The changes provide more comprehensive appraisal mechanisms and improve the applicability and consistency of the P3 Equilibrium Framework. In addition, the concept of "tension" is introduced, which in effect is a means of describing the stress between the interested parties of a P3 arrangement. Ultimately, the revised Framework helps to structure perspectives of P3 arrangements and is underpinned by the notion that these strategies must balance the interests of society, the state, industry, and the market for ultimate success. / Master of Science

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Zugl.: Osnabrück, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Regensburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

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