Successful value creation also hinges on the reproducibility of partnerships in a given country. Rather than looking at each partnership as an isolated project, governments should consider each PPP as a part of a larger PPP strategy. Successful PPPs, then, are not just those that deliver on their explicit goals, but also those that adequately prepare government professionals for future projects. While a successful partnership could be achieved using only consultants and outside help, a government should strive to successfully develop the skills and abilities of its professionals.
Knowledge transfer is the degree to which the skills and frameworks covered in this Guide are successfully transferred between public and private sector partners. Indeed, any benchmark for determining the success or failure of a partnership should be measured-at least partly-in terms of the degree to which the partnership prepared its participants for future PPPs. For a government looking to develop a coherent long-term PPP strategy, it is essential to develop PPP competence among its professionals, and effective knowledge transfer resulting in sustainability should be a priority of PPP projects.
As you might imagine, measuring knowledge transfer is not a straightforward endeavor. Because "knowledge" is such an unquantifiable metric, it can be hard for PPP participants to accurately determine how much knowledge transfer has taken place through the partnership. It is more important, however, that PPP participants assess their partnerships with an eye towards knowledge transfer than that they manage to quantify it exactly.
But how can PPP participants work to encourage knowledge transfer?