Relationship between inter-municipal cooperation and performance in the basic sanitation sector

Inter-municipal cooperation for the provision of public services is a theme that is still little explored in the literature, especially in public administration. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between intermunicipal cooperation and results in the basic sanitation sector, using the discussion on state capacities as a theoretical lens. For this, data were collected from the 5570 Brazilian municipalities, submitted to the techniques of cluster analysis, t-tests for difference between means, ANOVA and Chi-square tests. The results showed that public water and sanitation consortia are not necessarily associated with greater access to sanitation, but the distancing of the public sector from the direct provision of these services is associated with lower access rates. Therefore, cooperation agreements between the municipal entity and other state and non-state actors to delegate the provision of one or more sanitation services may not be contributing to the universalization of sanitation in the country.