International public–private partnership policies: convergence in themes from international organizations?

This chapter looks at how international public–private partnership (PPP) policies are formulated by international organizations. PPPs for infrastructure projects are relevant and present in many countries around the world. The literature is full of studies of individual countries and various aspects of PPPs governance and finance. But there has been less emphasis in the literature on the way in which international organizations have been developing and promoting policies for PPPs. This chapter makes a start in describing and analyzing the way international organizations make policy for PPPs and focuses on perception around their actions. The research questions are: How do international organizations make policy for PPPs and what tools do they use? Do PPP policies from international organizations converge on the same kind of themes? The theoretical lenses employed include the Advocacy Coalition Framework and institutional change mechanisms. The empirical focus is on international organizations’ approaches to PPPs. The chapter examines policy tools from selected international organizations, including the ASEAN countries, the European Union, International Monetary Fund, OECD, UN, and the World Bank. We examine the most recent policy papers (documents and reports) and compare their content, and we show that international organizations co-operate on certain tools in PPP policy development. However, we also note that each organization likes to promote its own tools for PPP projects and developments. International organizations appear to converge on roughly the same themes on PPPs, and there seems to be overall agreement about the main messages and recommendations for the use of PPPs in infrastructure projects.