Suchergebnisse

Was bedeutet der kurzatmige Umgang der Politik mit täglich neu auftauchenden Problemen für das Recht und den Staat? Kann unter den Bedingungen zunehmenden Zeitdrucks durch sich verdichtende Zeitstrukturen heute gar von einem beschleunigten Staat gesprochen werden? Um diesen Fragen nachzugehen, entwickelt Nils Janson ein temporales Verständnis staatlicher Gewalt. Dazu untersucht er die Auswirkungen der sozialen Beschleunigung (Hartmut Rosa) auf die Funktionsbedingungen von Rechtsetzungsprozessen und damit den Staat. Die herausgearbeiteten Reaktionsmuster eröffnen neue Zugänge und Blickwinkel auf die verfassungsrechtlichen Grenzen und Möglichkeiten zeitlicher Entlastungen für den »gestressten Leviathan«, dessen Zukunftsfähigkeit trotz allem durch eine bewusste Zeitsteuerung und eine gemeinsame Imagination der Zukunft gesichert werden könnte.

In many urban areas around the world, public utilities provide water supply and sanitation (WSS) services. While some of these urban public water and sanitation utilities ("water utilities") perform well, others suffer from the types of performance issues observed in many public sector entities, such as low operating and investment efficiency. A framework for turning around poorly performing water utilities will benefit the management of these utilities, governments with responsibilities for water utilities, and those providing technical and financial support for improving the WSS sector. Improving the performance of water utilities is difficult because the problems they face are complex and multidimensional. Problems caused by dysfunctional political environments, combined with an entrenched backlog of inefficient practices, cannot be solved by applying standard technical and managerial techniques. Achieving a sustained turnaround requires a framework that integrates practical steps to increase a utility's operational and managerial efficiency with measures to reverse the dysfunctional political equilibria in which it operates. Using a comprehensive turnaround framework is the best approach to improve water utilities' performance and efficiency, and increase their ability to access finance, including commercial finance. Why does this matter? Evidence shows that water utilities with access to commercial finance are much more likely to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Improving the management and governance of state-owned enterprises in the water supply and sanitation sector in the Caribbean is critical. State-owned enterprises play a significant role in the economy through their impact on fiscal accounts and service delivery to citizens. This benchmark analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of 14 water utilities, with focus on Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, and St. Lucia. It is a tool for policy makers and practitioners seeking to improve service delivery in the sector, restore or maintain fiscal discipline, and pursue sector goals in a sustainable manner. In the Caribbean region and beyond, building smart and resilient water utilities for the future is a priority. The challenges are complex and multidimensional. Political problems, weak institutions, low capacity, and inefficient practices exacerbate less-than-satisfactory performance. These challenges cannot be met by applying a cookie-cutter approach or by focusing only on standard technical and managerial techniques. Improving corporate governance will increase operational and managerial efficiency. Evidence shows that water supply and sanitation utilities with access to commercial finance are more likely to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This benchmark finds that many of the analyzed state-owned water utilities are underperforming in terms of coverage, quality of service, operating efficiency, and financial performance. Overcoming these challenges will require long-term measures, with implementation that is likely to be ambitious and challenging. Shorter-term measures targeted at strengthening financial sustainability would involve establishing reliable cash flows that allow utilities to cover their costs. Benchmarking governance in state-owned enterprises varies across the region. Some countries have a strong governance framework with well-developed policies and legal and regulatory frameworks, while others have unclear sector policies and underdeveloped legal and regulatory frameworks. Water supply and sanitation utilities with better-developed governance frameworks usually perform better than those with underdeveloped frameworks.