performance of urban water service provision, high levels of inequities and inefficiency persist. In terms of water distribution and cost, these undesirable patterns have a high impact on peri-urban areas usually populated by marginalized and poor populations. The high levels of Non-Revenue Water (NRW), together with the existence of corrupt practices and mismanagement of water utilities, remain a highly controversial issue.

This situation confronts rent-seeking theory directly, explaining the performance-corruption relationship (Repetto, 1986). The presumption is that low performance in water supply service provision results from corruption because rent-seeking occurs. Hence, the implementation of performance-oriented reforms in the water supply sector, such as regulation or private sector participation, will reduce corruption, increasing the efficiency of water service provision. Nevertheless, latest evidence shows that “key elements of good political governance have a positive effect on the access to water services in developing countries. In turn, private sector participation has little influence other than increasing internal efficiency of water providers” (Krausse, 2009).

Indeed the relation between governance, corruption and performance seems to be more complex than theory wants to acknowledge. It must be reviewed further than a simple cause-effect relationship. It appears that poor management of water utilities, evidenced by high levels of NRW, justifies new investments. Such practices can be encouraged by an “opportunistic management”, whilst at the same time maintaining an influential “hydrocratic elite” in the sphere of water control.

The present research proposal aims to understand the relation between mismanagement and corruption of water control practices in water supply service provision. The research examines how this relationship affects the performance of water service provision and relates to water supply governance models at municipal peri-urban level in three African countries.

To understand the mismanagement-corruption relationship, we look at different case studies of water supply service provision in Senegal, Ghana and Kenya. Each case represents a different governance model in terms of management practices, institutional and organizational settings, and the actors in place, which affects the performance of water service provision in terms of allocative efficiency and access to water (equity). Whether regulation, decentralization and private sector participation constitute possible ways to reduce corruption is examined in the context of water sector reform.

In a second step, we propose a theoretical model based on Agent Based Modelling (ABM) (Pahl-Wostl, 2007) to reproduce complex social networks under a Socio-Ecological System (SES) framework approach. The model will allow us to test whether collaborative governance in the form of collective action in a participatory and negotiated decision-making process for water control, can reduce corruption and increase performance.

The present research benefits from the project “Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa”. This project, carried out by Transparency International (TI) in 8 Sub-Saharan countries, aims to increase access to education, health and water by improving transparency and integrity in basic service delivery. The proposal retains focus on Senegal, Ghana and Kenya in the water sector.

Key words: water control, mismanagement, corruption, performance, collaborative governance, modelling, collective action, negotiation, participation

Human-Environment relations
socio-ecological systems
Transitions
Simulation modeling

I work in the field of complex adaptive systems, specializing in multi-agent systems, simulation, machine learning, collective intelligence, self-organization, and self-adaptation. I am interested in contributing to innovative projects and research in these domains.

My experience spans across multiple large-scale international research projects in areas such as green urban logistics, blockchain for nuclear applications, autonomous robotics systems and simulation of biological neural networks.

Modeling of spatialized social-ecological-agrosystems

Interested in numerical models and new conceptual ideas, applications from industry to medicine.

I focus on numerical modeling of mechanics of solid materials and cell mechanics. The models that I developed so far address granular matters, bio-fluids, cellular tissues, and individual cells.

I further develop Agent-based Models, which are methods to predict collective behavior from individual dynamics controlled by rules or differential equations. Examples: tumor growth, swarms, crowd movement.

The methods I used are Particle-based methods which offer great flexibility within physical modeling, and can operate in a large range of scales, from atomistic scales (e.g. Molecular Dynamics) to continuum approaches (e.g. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics).

Mathematical modeling
agent-based modeling
coupling of agent-based models and mathematical models
machine learning algorithms
deep learning algorithms
Statistical inference
infectious diseases modeling