The Impact of Public-Nonprofit Collaboration on the Capacity of Public Institutions in Nigeria.

Abstract

My dissertation explores the potential of public and nonprofit sector collaboration to improve public institutional capacity through institutional isomorphism. One of the major problems that has been identified in developing countries around the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the inability of the government to deliver public services to citizens (Crook, 2010). This problem has been attributed to several factors including the low organizational capacity in the public sector. This study uses empirical data from field research in Nigeria to investigate the impact of public-nonprofit collaboration on public institutional capacity through potential institutional learning. I use original data from over 87 public sector officials across 28 public organizations in Abuja, Nigeria to answer my key research question of whether public institutions that participate in collaborative arrangements have higher program implementation and evaluation capacity relative to public institutions that do not. I also conduct 17 in-depth interviews with public sector officials to supplement the quantitative analysis. My findings indicate that an increasing number of government agencies in Nigeria are collaborating with nonprofit organizations in implementing programs that directly affect citizens. My quantitative analysis also indicates that government agencies that participate in voluntary collaborative arrangements have a significantly higher program evaluation capacity relative to those that do not, but that difference is not significant in the case of their program implementation capacity.