Foreword

Governments, the private sector, and the international development community agree that quality infrastructure plays a key role in fostering economic growth and supports efforts to reduce poverty. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) expressly seek to "Develop quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all." There is increased recognition of the key role that the private sector can play in partnering with governments to support the efficient and timely provision of infrastructure. The SDGs also recognize the importance of such relationships when emphasizing the need to "encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships."

Public-private partnerships (PPPs)-long-term contractual agreements for the delivery of infrastructure or provision of services in which the private sector bears a significant amount of risk and management responsibility-can play an important role in closing the infrastructure gap. But PPPs can be complex to procure and manage. Governments need proper frameworks and capacity to identify the projects that are best done as PPPs, to procure them transparently and efficiently, and to undertake contract management and regulation so as to achieve the expected value-for-money for government and consumers and sustain investment.

Benchmarking Public-Private Partnerships Procurement 2017 assesses important aspects of government capabilities to prepare, procure, and manage PPPs and informs evidence-based decision making on the design of PPP procurement policies and regulations. It is the first attempt to collect systematic data on PPP procurement by providing comparable data on the regulatory frameworks governing the PPP procurement processes in 82 economies and to evaluate these data against internationally recognized good practices.

The methodology was developed with extensive feedback from an expert group representing PPP experts, academia, and the private sector. It focuses on issues such as feasibility, value for money, transparency, competition, and provisions for PPP implementation and covers the main stages of the PPP project cycle (preparation, procurement, and contract management). It also explores the treatment of unsolicited proposals (USPs).

As the international development community continues its efforts to assist governments in delivering quality infrastructure, Benchmarking PPP Procurement aims to support our clients' efforts to enhance their regulatory environment to foster PPPs that successfully support infrastructure provision and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.