Introduction
Public-private partnerships have been used by many world economies to bridge the gap in provision of key public infrastructures since they were prominently introduced during the 1990’s economic boom. Available literature suggests that, PPP’s initially received a somehow lukewarm reception in the MENA region mainly due to economic and political constraints but that seems to have changed of late.
There has been a lot of interest lately in the MENA region on public–private partnerships in the provision of key public infrastructure in the sectors such as energy, water, telecommunications and transport (Menard 2012). A lot of credit has especially been heaped on public-private partnerships on the success that it has so far achieved in the energy and water sectors.
Despite this success, however, there has been very poor reception of public-private partnerships in other sectors and globally PPP’s in the MENA region continue to lag way much behind other regions. There’s need to study and understand the impact public-private partnerships have had in the energy and water sectors in order to enhance the replication of this in other sectors (Unesco-Unevoc n.d).
Objectives of the study
- To identify and evaluate the challenges to successful employment of public private partnerships in development projects
- To identify best practices for smooth employment of public private partnerships in development projects
- To find out the extent of the impact of public-private partnerships in facilitating energy and water development projects in the MENA region.
- To make suggestions and recommendations that may aid replication of public-private partnerships in other development projects within the MENA region (Arab Water Council 2009).
Specific research questions
- What are the key factors that have aided successful implementation of public-private partnerships in energy and water projects in the MENA region?
- Are there any unique factors that have aided PPP’s in the water and energy factors?
- What factors have hindered adoption and successful implementation of public-private partnerships in other areas of the economy?
- What is the preferred mode of engagement used in this partnership?
- Does the current institutional framework sufficiently enough to support many other such engagements?
- Are there any extra advantages in terms of service delivery to the public in using PPP’s rather than pure public investments?
- What has been the impact of PPP’s in these two sectors to the economy? (Atta et al, 2009).
Literature review
Public-private partnerships (PPP’s) refer to mutually beneficial contractual arrangements between the private sector and the government to jointly work together in the provision of key public utilities in a tightly looped environment (Menard, 2012, p.4).
Usually in such kind of arrangements, the government provides the regulatory framework while the private sector chips in on investments and management of the projects. According to Keenan (2011, p.2), PPP’s if effectively implemented can form a very effective means of procuring public infrastructures in many sectors of the economy.
Methodology
The methodology used will rely on secondary data. Secondary data from books and other scholarly materials, as well as reports from organizations and materials available from the internet will be used to carry a desk research. A desk research has been particularly preferred on two grounds.
Firstly due to the general nature of the survey that is basically not centered on a specific project but on many projects across various countries within the MENA region. Secondly, to conduct such a wide survey based on primary data would have required substantial investments in both time and other resources which are very limited for now.
References
Attia et al 2009, Arab Countries Regional Report, 2009. Arab Water council, Cairo.
Arab Water Council 2009, Arab Countries Regional Report. Web.
Keenan, R 2011, PPPs in the Middle East. Special Report. Chadbourne & Parke LLP, US.
Menard, C 2012, Is public-private partnership Obsolete? Assessing the obstacles and shortcomings of PPP, Routledge, London.
Unesco-Unevoc n.d., Public Private Partnership in the Arabr States. Web.