What have we learnt about PPPs?

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been considered one of the important mechanisms for public infrastructure and service delivery by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as influential institutions globally. Many positive assumptions and well-founded rationales have been associated with them. Since the early 1990s, PPPs as a practical form of implementation of major infrastructure projects has increased dramatically. However, there have been various problems and controversial outcomes, as well as spectacular corporate failures, resulting in their decline in use in some countries and their demise in the UK. As humankind, we face many grand challenges in the modern era, including specific issues of climate change and provision of food, water and energy for everyone, as well as building resilient cities and societies that can handle changing climatic and ecological conditions. PPPs are recognized as having a role to play in meeting these challenges as tools for development, something that is recognized by the governments of many nations. Nonetheless, for a form of practice that has been adopted widely, with a global reach, understanding what benefits or values PPPs can realistically deliver and how to improve their effectiveness in delivering their objectives remains major issue for research. Revisiting the chapters in the book, this chapter reflects on these questions in dialogue with the contributions.