PhD defence M.E. (Mario) Villalba Ferreira

Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:

Municipalities are responsible for managing our waste, but many municipalities in Latin America struggle to provide safe and sustainable waste services. Smaller municipalities in particular may lack the financial resources, technical expertise and institutional capacity needed to manage waste effectively.

This PhD research investigates whether municipalities can address some of these challenges by working together. It examines inter-municipal cooperation in waste management in Ecuador and across Latin America, using interviews, administrative data and comparative research.

The research shows that cooperation between municipalities can be associated with better waste management outcomes, but that how municipalities cooperate matters. More structured and institutionalised forms of cooperation are associated with better results, particularly for activities that require specialised knowledge, investment and coordination, such as recycling, waste separation, the inclusion of waste pickers and safer waste disposal. In Ecuador, municipalities using inter-municipal governance arrangements were also less likely to rely on open dumps.

At the same time, cooperation is not a universal solution. Its effectiveness depends on wider conditions, including financial capacity, population size, political commitment, appropriate tariffs and institutional stability.

The main message is therefore not simply that municipalities should cooperate, but that they need to choose forms of cooperation that fit their circumstances and create the conditions that allow cooperation to work.