ABSTRACT
Although governments are generally expected to provide environmental services such as sanitation and solid waste collection for their citizens, in most Sub-Saharan African cities, the (municipal) authorities are not able to provide these services solely by themselves. Without ignoring lack of material resources caused by poverty, there are other structural causes, as well, for this failure, including their particular understanding of the role of the state (Oosterveer 2009). This situation has created considerable room for non-state actors to move into these traditional state tasks (Mol 2001; Tukahirwa et al. 2008). These developments create challenges for establishing an appropriate balance between the role of municipal authorities and non-state actors in municipal environmental service provision in East Africa.
