Is governance enough? Assessing municipal capacity and CSO participation for complex service delivery

Global South municipalities have varying levels of service performance depending on service complexity level. Given the implications of waste management for administrative capacity, nonstate actor participation, service complexity, and climate action, this article uses a panel dataset of Peruvian municipalities to examine whether local governance factors, such as waste office administrative capacity and active, locally embedded Civil Society Organization (CSO) involvement, equally influence the performance of both high- and low-complexity services. Preliminary findings suggest that waste office administrative capacity is associated with improved performance in both services while neighborhood-based CSOs are crucial for increased simple waste service delivery but not for a more complex one. Deliberative governance spaces of local collaboration are not associated with either service. This suggests that strengthening government administrative capacity is needed for delivering complex services related to climate change and that nonstate actors may not substitute for the state in these conditions, contrary to expectations.