ABSTRACT
When international agencies first started promoting private sector involvement in municipal services, the inefficiency of the public sector in delivering urban services was the fundamental cause of concern. As a result, support – and publications – in the early to mid-1990s mainly focused on the benefits of private sector participation (PSP) and how it could be achieved. In this context, the delivery of services to low-income areas was part of the problem to be solved and was addressed through the development of policy, regulatory frameworks and contract provisions in relation to tariffs, expansion mandates and network upgrades. At this time, consideration was not explicitly given to the diversity of the customer base in developing countries or, more specifically, to the complex set of issues concerning delivery to the poorest households. The very shift to private sector involvement in the delivery of basic services required a fundamental reorientation and this occupied the debate in its earliest years.
