- Title
- Inter-organisational collaboration: post-disaster water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) service provision
- Creator
- Hosseinpourtehrani, Mina
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The scale and frequency of disasters continues to increase worldwide, resulting in significant infrastructure destruction, loss of life and property, and lack of access to public services. More importantly, much evidence has been reported that disease infection management is vital in the post-disaster phase, particularly in developing countries, due to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. However, providing WASH services after a disaster is complicated because of the interaction between non-government organisations (NGOs) and government organisations (GOs) responsible for post-disaster WASH service provisions. Understanding this complexity and improving the relationship is important to ensure actors with different powers and interests interact effectively, improving the WASH service provision in disaster settings. Therefore, this research investigates how NGOs and the GOs collaborate to provide post-disaster WASH services. It proposes a conceptual framework, exploring the factors that affect collaboration in a disaster context. From an organisational and sociological standpoint, a phenomenological exploratory research design was employed to understand the perception and experiences of the participants. A qualitative research method using 30 semi-structured interviews was conducted to explore, 1) the WASH status, 2) the main agencies, their interactions and associated structures, 3) the factors of collaboration to provide WASH services in times of disaster, and 4) the interaction of the factors in the previous three steps, which is explored through analysis. In the first step, exploring the WASH–disaster risk linkage provides a comprehensive picture of WASH status in the aftermath of disasters. The findings in this section were categorised into four groups: the risk factors, public health impact, the WASH interventions implemented, and the impediments to providing WASH services. In the second step, agencies, their interactions, and associated structures were explored. Inspired by structuration theory, the findings were classified into three interaction-modality-structures groups: sanction-norms-legitimation, power-resources-domination, and communication-interpretative schemes-signification. In the third step, the factors influencing the GO-NGO collaboration were categorised into three main groups: preconditions, process, and structure. In the fourth stage, the factors explored in the previous stages were analysed dynamically in two aspects: how the factors of WASH status are interlinked and how the agencies’ interactions and associated structures contribute to the collaboration factors to ensure successful WASH operation. In this study, a dynamic pattern of GO-NGO collaboration is encouraged to build collaborative partnerships, which ensures successful WASH operations. Importantly, the research has enabled the development of a model that connects the factors of collaboration and allows the possibility of changing the structural factors of collaboration. In this way, it has joined structuration theory to the collaboration model. The model develops the agencies' interaction and structure through trust constitution, representing structures in the interactions. In this regard, trust is considered in three dimensions: trust as a normative rule that agents use to start collaboration, trust as an authoritative resource that allows agencies to intervene powerfully in interactions, and trust as a rule of signification that enables agents to interpret the communication trustingly in the process of collaboration. Trust in this model enables the connection of preconditions, process, and structural factors in collaboration. Moreover, trust as an authoritative resource makes it possible to change the structural factors of collaboration. This contribution helps agencies use different strategic choices rather than radically avoiding collaboration. This is particularly important in a rigid system where inflexibility of structure inhibits an effective outcome.
- Subject
- inter-organisational collaboration; government organisations (GOs); non-governmental organisations (NGOs); water sanitation and hygiene (WASH); post-disaster
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1513834
- Identifier
- uon:56773
- Rights
- Copyright 2022 Mina Hosseinpourtehrani
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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