Thesis M.M. Finance and Investment, Faculty of Commerce, Law And Management (WBS), 2016 / This study seeks to identify and deepen the understanding of the root causes of infrastructure deficit with emphasis on the West African region. Amongst its objectives, the study explores tailored-approaches to infrastructure financing. The study takes direction from literature and similar work in the recent past and employs both conceptual and empirical - trend as well as cross correlation analysis - techniques in addressing its objectives. Literature points to Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) as the most suitable model for infrastructure finance provisioning which this study adopts. The study tests the significance of PPP and in so doing makes recommendations to policy-makers on key factors or barriers such as political stability and the absence of violence, rule of law, regulatory quality, etc. that require attention to enable the efficient use of PPP to mitigate the infrastructure gap within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the resulting consequences. / XL2018

Por meio do processo conhecido como bioprospecção, propõe-se a aplicação dos lucros obtidos com a comercialização de produtos, como fármacos, em ações para conservação biológica. O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar a importância deste instrumento para a conservação a partir de estudo de caso focado na experiência do Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidade (INBio), na Costa Rica. Os procedimentos metodológicos estão baseados nas estratégias de pesquisa de: a) estudo de caso; b) documental e c) pesquisa bibliográfica. O INBio, uma associação sem fins lucrativos, se empenhou na elaboração do inventário nacional da biodiversidade e firmou diversos contratos de bioprospecção, entre eles o comentado acordo com a indústria farmacêutica Merck. Alguns pontos positivos devem ser destacados a partir dessa experiência: geração de conhecimento sobre os recursos biológicos locais em função do inventário; criação de sistema de controle ao acesso e identificação dos materiais coletados; o aparato jurídico desenvolvido; aprimoramento da capacidade de negociação; disseminação de informação em publicações científicas; atividades voltadas à Educação Ambiental e apoio a pequenas e médias empresas nacionais no desenvolvimento de produtos baseados em recursos biológicos do país. Por outro lado, os dados analisados mostram que tem sido baixo o retorno financeiro do Instituto; os pagamentos não têm sido suficientes para cobrir os gastos. Esta questão está ligada ao fato de que, ainda que tenha começado o recebimento pela comercialização de alguns produtos desenvolvidos internamente, ainda não há produtos desenvolvidos resultantes de contratos com grandes companhias e, portanto, ainda não foram correspondidas as expectativas com relação ao recebimento de royalties. Há deficiência com relação ao controle administrativo dessas atividades por parte do Estado, o que reflete na falta de transparência das fontes disponíveis de informações. A análise dos recursos financeiros obtidos versus repasse de verbas para fins de conservação fica comprometida em razão de informações incompletas ou pela falta de padronização na apresentação dos dados no decorrer dos anos. O desmatamento tem apresentado queda contínua, mas não é possível relacionar este fato com os contratos de bioprospecção, devido ao sistema variado de fontes de contribuições e pagamentos por serviços destinados à conservação biológica naquele país. Ademais, os conhecimentos tradicionais das populações locais estão sendo ignoradas em todo esse processo conduzido pelo INBio. Portanto, até o momento, o que acontece na Costa Rica está mais próximo de representar uma evolução no sentido de empreender medidas em direção ao uso e conservação dos recursos biológicos, porém ainda não representa a solução ou ajuda significativa à conservação biológica naquele país. / Using the process known as bioprospecting, it is proposed the use of the profits obtained with the commercialization of products, such as pharmaceuticals, in biological conservation activities. The objective of this work is to verify the importance of this instrument for conservation, by means of a case study focused in the experience of the National Biodiversity Institute (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidade) (INBio), in Costa Rica. The methodology is based in the strategies of researching: a) case study; b) documents and c) bibliography research. The National Biodiversity Institute (INBio), a non-profit association which has endeavored to elaborate a national biodiversity inventory and signed various bioprospecting contracts, among them the renowned agreement with Merck pharmaceutical company. Some positive points should be emphasized from this experience: generation of knowledge about local biological resources through inventory; creation of a control system for accessing and identifying the collected materials; the development of a legal apparatus; the improvement of negotiation skills; the dissemination of information through scientific publications, activities oriented to Environmental Education and supporting national small and medium firms in the development of products based on the country\'s biological resources. On the other hand, the data analyzed show low financial return, in spite of the fact that the income for the commercialization of some internally-developed products has begun. Payments have not been enough to cover the Institute\'s expenditures and there are still no developed products resulting from contracts with big companies and, therefore, the expectations relative to the receiving of royalties were still not fulfilled. There is a deficiency relative to the administrative control of these activities by the State, which reflects the lack of transparency of the available sources of information. The analysis of the obtained resources versus the transfer of funds for conservation is jeopardized due to incomplete information or lack of standardization in the presentation of data through the years. Deforestation has declined continuously, but it is impossible to relate this fact to the bioprospecting contracts, due to the diverse system of contribution and payment sources for services destined to the conservation of that country\'s natural resources. Besides, the traditional knowledge of the local population has been ignored in the entire process conducted by INBio. Therefore, for the moment, what happens in Costa Rica is closer to represent an evolution in the sense of taking steps in the direction of using and conserving biological resources, but it still does not represent the solution or significant aid to the biological conservation in Costa Rica.

Regulation of the nonprofit sector is a subject of significant debate in the academic and professional literature. The debate raises questions about how to regulate the sector in a manner that addresses accountability while preserving the sector’s unique role in society. Central to the debate is the role of self-regulation. The nonprofit sector is recognized and defended as a distinct third sector in society. Cultural norms and values differentiate the purpose of the sector from the governmental and commercial realms. The legal regime secures rights, establishes organizational structures, and provides tax benefits that enable, reinforce, and protect participation in nonprofit activities. Nevertheless, government regulation is thought to be antithetical to sector autonomy, as well as an obstacle to flexibility and innovation. Selfregulation protects the sector’s political independence and its distinctiveness through the cultivation of shared norms, standards, and processes for ethical practices. Although self regulation is considered to be consistent with the autonomous nature of the sector, it is also criticized as a weaker form of regulation. The ability to address regulatory issues expressed in the broader debate is limited by how we frame nonprofit regulation. The problem with advancing our understanding of self-regulation has to do with how we conceptualize nonprofit regulation. Government and self-regulation are conceptualized and studied as distinct options for regulating the sector. Missing in the nonprofit scholarship is a theoretical framework capable of reframing nonprofit regulation as a system of governance that depends on self-regulation. This represents a glaring gap in the research. Neglecting the institutional context that explains the structure and functioning of the nonprofit sector has led to an oversimplification of nonprofit governance. To study the effects of self-regulation on the functioning of the sector, I argue that we must first frame what is relevant about how the nonprofit sector is governed. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework outlines a systematic approach for analyzing institutions that govern collective endeavors. The objective of this dissertation is to introduce the IAD as an approach for examining self-regulation not as an alternative to government regulation but as an important part of nonprofit governance. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Essa dissertação aborda a concessão de aeroportos no Brasil, estudando principalmente o processo de transferência da gestão do Aeroporto Internacional Tancredo Neves- Confins do poder público para a iniciativa privada. A concessão dos aeroportos administrados pela Infraero foi iniciada em 2011, e por ser fato recente, há poucos estudos sobre o tema. Tendo a concessão do Aeroporto de Confins iniciado em 2013, não foram encontrados trabalhos que estudassem esse processo, havendo assim uma lacuna de conhecimento a qual essa dissertação visa minimizar. Para tal, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa qualitativa, por meio da pesquisa documental, de análise documental, e de uma adaptação da análise de conteúdo, aliados à revisão de literatura, para elaborar um estudo de caso. O edital do leilão e o contrato de concessão do Aeroporto de Confins foram os principais documentos estudados. Destaca-se que o leilão foi realizado por meio de inversão de fases, em que foram analisados apenas os Documentos de Habilitação do grupo vencedor após a sessão pública do leilão. Outro ponto estudado foi o critério de julgamento do leilão, que foi o de maior valor de outorga, apontado por diversos autores como prejudicial à modicidade de tarifas prevista pela Lei Geral das Concessões. Ainda se tratando do edital, houve a exigência de operador aeroportuário que tivesse movimentado mais de 12,5 milhões de passageiros em um dos cinco anos anteriores ao leilão. Com isso foi demandada a participação de parceiro internacional na concessionária, com experiência em gestão de aeroportos do porte de Confins. Os parceiros eram a Zurich Airport e a Munich Airport International Beteiligungs- GMBH, contudo a segunda empresa não compõe a Sociedade de Propósito Específico-SPE que administra o aeroporto, sendo sua saída justificada pela SAC/PR como reorganização societária nos termos previstos pelo contrato. A composição da SPE traz mais uma questão controversa, já que além do parceiro internacional, Zurich Airport e da Companhia de Participações em Concessões- CCR, que arremataram o aeroporto, há também a participação da Infraero com 49% do capital social da concessionária. Essa participação da Infraero criou um modelo distinto de concessão daquele disposto pela legislação. Constata-se que no regime de concessão de aeroportos em execução no Brasil o poder público transferiu apenas parte da gestão ao ente privado, permanecendo a empresa pública, que já administrava os aeroportos, na gestão como acionista da concessionária. Esse híbrido não está previsto pela legislação, causando uma disfunção da gestão pública e privada. Também devido a essa participação, a Infraero compartilha das obrigações financeiras da concessionária, remunerando a União proporcionalmente. Como a União concede aportes financeiros anuais à Infraero cria-se algo incomum em que a União despende e arrecada seus recursos de maneira concomitante. Ainda no aspecto econômico, a cobrança do alto valor de outorga para a concessão é justificada para auxiliar o setor aeroportuário como um todo. Percebe-se que os subsídios cruzados que ocorriam na Rede Infraero permanecem, com o agravante que agora o parceiro privado da concessionária também irá investir em aeroportos deficitários de maneira indireta. Esse ponto destoa do objeto da concessão previsto pelo contrato. Conclui-se que a concessão do Aeroporto de Confins, possui diversos aspectos controversos. Novos estudos sobre a concessão de aeroportos no Brasil fazem-se necessários, não apenas no estágio de implementação, mas durante toda sua vigência, para assegurar que sua finalidade principal, a qualidade do serviço público, seja mantida. / This dissertation deals with the concession of airports in Brazil, studying mainly the transference process of management of the Tancredo Neves International Airport- Confins to the public administration for the private sector. The concession of the airports managed by Infraero was initiated in 2011, and because it is a recent fact, there are few studies about the theme. The concession of the Confins Airport started in 2013, therefore, studies about it were not found, indicating the existence of a knowledge gap which this dissertation aims to minimize. For this, it was developed a qualitative research, whereby documental research, documental analysis and an adaptation of the content analysis, allied to literature research, to elaborate a case study. The auction notice and the concession contract were the main documents studied. It is emphasized that the auction had inversion of stages, in which the habilitation documents of the winner were analyzed just after the public auction. Another point was the auction criteria of judgment, that was the greatest granting offered, is considered by some authors as harming to the tariff moderateness foreseen in the Brazilian General Law of Concessions. Still about the auction notice there was the exigency of an airport operator that had moved more than 12.5 million passengers in one of the five years before the auction. With this it was demanded the participation of an international partner in the concessionaire, with experience in managing airport with the size of Confins Airport. The partners were Zurich Airport and Munich Airport International Beteiligungs- GMBH, however the second company does not compose the Specific Purpose Society- SPE that manages the airport. Its exit was justified for the SAC/PR as a corporate rearrangement foreseen in the contract. The composition of the SPE brings another controversial question, since besides the international partner Zurich Airport and Companhia de Participações em Concessões- CCR, that won the airport concession, there is also the participation of Infraero with 49% of the social capital of the concessionaire. This partnership of Infraero created a distinct model of concession, different from that one disposed in the legislation. It is evidenced that in the current regime of airport concession in Brazil the public administration transferred just part of the management to the private sector, with the public company that already managed the airport remaining in the administration, as a shareholder of the concessionaire. This hybrid is not foreseen in the legislation, causing a dysfunction in the public and private management. Also due to this participation, Infraero shares the financial obligations of the concessionaire, paying the Union proportionality. As the Union provides annual financial resources to Infraero it is created an unusual situation, where the Union spends and raises its resources at the same time. Still in the economic aspect, the charge of a high value of granting is justified to help the airport sector as a whole. It is noticed that the crossed subsidies that used to occur in the Rede Infraero remain, with the aggravating that now the private partner of the concessionaire will also indirectly invest in the airports with deficits. This point diverges of the concession object foreseen by the contract. It is concluded that the Confins Airport concession has many controversial aspects. New studies about the concession of Brazilian airports are needed, not only in the implementation stage, but during its whole term, to ensure that its main purpose, the quality of the public service, remains.

The theme of thesis is to analyze the effectviveness of public- private partnership. The thesis consists of theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part defines public goods and means of their security. The following defines the public-private partnership. Than there is the evaluation of public procurements and Public Private Partnership projects in a legal and financial aspects. The practical part describes legal security and financing of Public Private Partnership project Aquapark Olomouc along with SWOT analysis and risk analysis. The analysis above leads to the identification of problematic points of the project. Finally, suggestions are formulated to solution of identified problems and evaluate whether, in this particular case, public-private partnership has been effective.

In recent decades, Sweden has seen a rapid increase in the share of health care, education and social care that is delivered by privately-owned companies. Such privatisation of welfare state services has by some of its advocators been viewed as a means to enhance gender equality in labour market outcomes; one of them being access to managerial positions. This thesis uses Swedish registry data to examine how the underrepresentation of female managers differs between public sector and private sector providers of welfare state services. Moreover, the analysis pays close attention to how employees’ family statuses – partnership and parenthood – influence careers in each of the sectors. The result shows that the gender gap in managerial authority is narrower in the public sector than in the private sector. However, family responsibilities are shown to have a smaller and more gender-equal influence on managerial authority among employees in the private sector. The thesis’ conclusion is, thus, that even though career opportunities might be more gender-equal in the public sector than in the private sector, the theoretical assumption that women’s careers are better off in the public sector because it is more “family-friendly” does not receive support.

The water privatization project in Buenos Aires, Argentina between 1993 and 2006 serves as the main case study in this investigation. The study begins by introducing background information on neo-liberalism and free market capitalism and their role in promoting private sector participation in the water supply and sanitation (WSS) services industry. A comparative case study analysis of the Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Dolphin Coast, and United Kingdom case studies has revealed that there are some key similarities between the case studies. In the conclusion, the key similarities are analyzed to make broader implications about the nature of private sector participation in the WSS services industry.

Public-private partnerships in emergency management are widely encouraged in the academic literature, yet the government of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) tends to view collaboration from the private sector as an impediment to good policy. This occurs in spite of the island nation's geography that makes it susceptible to natural and human caused disasters. The purpose of this correlational study was to use public choice theory to explore, from the perspective of potential private sector collaborators, whether sufficient support exists in the private sector to support the USVI government in emergency management efforts. A modified version of the Mulhearn Sustainability and Community Collaboration Survey was distributed to business owners (n = 156). These data were used to determine whether a statistically significant relationship between USVI preparedness and collaborative governance exists. The results of the linear regression were significant, (p < .001) and suggest private sector company owners believe that collaborative governance can increase USVI preparedness. The recommendation is that the USVI government and the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency involve the private sector in the planning, operations, and logistics of emergency management to prepare for any emergency such as natural disaster or terrorist action. The positive social change implication is based on the recommendation to the USVI government that the private sector be more involved in the planning, operations, and logistics of emergency management, thereby potentially improving emergency response in the event of a catastrophic event.

This research study is about partnership working in the human services using community mental health as a context. The purpose of this type of research has relevance today as governments at all levels in Australia are adopting partnerships as social policy tools to address social problems. The rationale for these policies appears to be based on recognition that large social problems require holistic responses through the working together of multiple agencies. However despite the volumes of material about the programmatic means for enacting partnerships I found little which attended to the micro practices of partnership. The lack of guidelines on how to engage in partnership becomes problematic as partnerships in social service contexts have complexities and can be difficult to enact. Moreover actors may feel undermined when it is taken for granted that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to enact partnerships. A case study is conducted on how partnerships are enacted within Bethany Outreach Services, a pseudonym used to represent a psychosocial support service in the Perth metropolitan area. Semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with seven participants engaged in a partnership within community mental health. The literature is analysed for its contribution to the critical question of how to “do” partnership. Case examples are utilised to contextualise key principles of partnership. Key elements of theoretical perspectives are applied as a way to better understand how partnerships might work better. Narratives from the literature and the experiences of people as seen through this case study are examined to arrive at some key elements of partnership. Despite their complexities partnerships provide an opportunity for actors to engage their humanity and build relationships based on human qualities such as respect, communication and the sharing of resources. These qualities build social capital, which can be developed in new partnership contexts to address new problem domains. It is through these qualities that partnerships might give meaning to the 'Human' in Human Services.

Governments of developed and developing countries alike are unable to fund the construction and maintenance of vital physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, water and wastewater treatment plants, and power plants. Thus, they are more and more turning to the private sector as a source of finance through procurement methods such as concession contracts. The most common form of concession contract is the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, where a government (Principal) grants a private sector company (Promoter) a concession to build, finance, operate and maintain a facility and collect revenue over the concession period before finally transferring the facility, at no cost to the Principal, as a fully operational facility. Theoretically speaking, these projects present a win-win-win solution for the community as well as both private and public sector participants. However, with the opportunity for private sector companies to earn higher returns comes greater risk. This is despite the fact that concession projects theoretically present a win-win-win solution to the problem of infrastructure provision. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in a number of countries including Australia. Private sector participants have admitted that there are problems that must be addressed to improve the process. Indeed they have attributed the underperformance of concession projects to the inability of both project Principals and Promoters to predict the impact of all financial and non-financial (risk) factors associated with concession project investments (CPIs) and to negotiate contracts to allow for these factors. Non-financial project aspects, such as social, environmental, political, legal and market share factors, are deemed to be important; but these aspects would usually be considered to lie outside the normal appraisal process. To allow for the effects of such qualitative aspects, the majority of Principal or promoting organisations resort to estimating the necessary money contingencies without an appropriate quantification of the combined effects of financial and non-financial (risks and opportunities) factors. In extreme cases, neglect of non-financial aspects can cause the failure of a project despite very favourable financial components; or can even cause the failure to go-ahead with a project that may have been of great non-financial benefit due to its projected ordinary returns. Hence, non-financial aspects need careful analysis and understanding so that they can be assessed and properly managed. It is imperative that feasibility studies allow the promoting organisation to include a combination of financial factors and non-financial factors related to the economic environment, project complexity, innovation, market share, competition, and the national significance of the project investment. While much research has already focused on the classification of CPI non-financial (risk) factors, and the identification of interdependencies between risk factors on international projects, no attempt has yet been made to quantify these risk interdependencies. Building upon the literature, this thesis proposes a generic CPI risk factor framework (RFF) including important interdependencies, which were verified and quantified using input provided by practitioners and researchers conversant with risk profiles of international and/or concession construction projects. Decision Support Systems (DSSs) are systems designed to assist in the decision making process by providing all necessary information to the analyst. There are a number of DSSs that have been developed over recent years for the evaluation of high-risk construction project investments, such as CPIs, which incorporate the analysis of both financial and non-financial (risk) aspects of the investment. However, although these DSSs have been useful to practitioners and researchers alike, they have not offered a satisfactory solution to the modelling problem and are all limited in their practical application for various reasons. Thus, the construction industry lacks a DSS that is capable of evaluating and comparing several CPI options, taking into consideration both financial and non-financial aspects of an investment, as well as including the uncertainties commonly encountered at the feasibility stage of a project, in an efficient and effective manner. These two criteria, efficiency and effectiveness, are integral to the usefulness and overall acceptance of the developed DSS in industry. This thesis develops an effective and efficient DSS to evaluate and compare CPI opportunities at the feasibility stage. The novel DSS design is based upon a combination of: (1) the mathematical modelling technique and financial analysis model that captures the true degree of certainty surrounding the project; and (2) the decision making technique and RFF that most closely reproduces the complexity of CPI decisions. Overall, this thesis outlines the methodology followed in the development of the DSS – produced as a stand-alone software product – and demonstrates its capabilities through a verification and validation process using real-life CPI case studies.