Making PPPs Work for the Poor: PPPs at the African Development Bank

Abstract

In Africa, the public sector is very often not able per se to deliver the resources needed to assure access to basic public goods and services. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has heavily invested in infrastructure to help overcome these long enduring bottlenecks, which have hampered economic growth in the continent. Given the AfDB’s ambitious objectives of contributing significantly to development and poverty reduction, and its continued thrust into infrastructure development through New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Africa50, and a range of collaborations to leverage resources for the continent, it is useful to consider the nature of the Bank’s involvement in Public–Private partnerships (PPPs) and identify lessons learned and recommendations for improvement. The methodology employs mixed methods, with desk reviews, staff consultations and analytical analysis of project data from 2006 to 2014 in 18 countries. Lessons and recommendations are drawn from the ‘Evaluation Results Database’, covering the period 2001–2012 from projects in 12 countries and six sectors. Overall, 64.4% of the PPP volume of the AfDB’s portfolio was allocated to lower middle-income countries, with low-income countries receiving about a quarter. The energy sector accounted for over 78% of the total PPP volume. A pragmatic account of what was done and learned from PPP implementation processes over a decade in the African continent is provided in this chapter, together with successes and failures from the AfDB’s experience, as the Bank itself and a range of other Multilateral Development Banks and donors continue to scale up infrastructure financing in Africa.

Citation

Sarmento, E.d.M. and Hussein, K. (2017), "Making PPPs Work for the Poor: PPPs at the African Development Bank", Leitão, J., de Morais Sarmento, E. and Aleluia, J. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Public–Private Partnerships in Developing and Emerging Economies, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 247-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-493-420171009