Creating a New Dynamic for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for Sustainable Development: Establishing a PPP "Toolkit" for Countries at the Pre-PPP Stage
Annual Call for Projects 2005
Summary
Can governments in partnership with the private sector and non-profit organisations promote peace and sustainable development? This is the primary question of this project.
This research will examine whether, and under what conditions, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can be conceived to include criteria for peace and sustainable development. This would include considerations for sustainable management of resources, equitable access to these resources for both women and men affected by the PPPs, as well as their safety, the security in the region, and the protection of infrastructure.
There are currently no internationally accepted guidelines on whether, and if so, how PPP agreements could incorporate considerations for sustainable and equitable development and for security, and how the participation of non-profit and non-governmental organisations could be beneficial to all partners and stakeholders. This research will not only investigate these questions, but also develop benchmarking criteria for the partners to measure the extent to which they actually contribute to peace and sustainable development.
Why study Public-Private Partnerships? Although private companies are not usually expected to provide public goods and services that national governments supply (such as public security, access to clean water, education, transportation), through partnering in PPPs they can obtain access to new markets and profitable returns at lower risks. This is often the case in fragile societies or countries undergoing economic and political transition.
At the same time, PPPs permit governments to provide their citizens with costly infrastructure and public services that they might otherwise not be able to afford. The international community has recognized this and now encourages the establishment of PPPs, but not of any kind. Rather, these partnerships need to take sustainable development, including human security, social equality, the safety of critical infrastructure and good governance into consideration. To neglect these aspects may represent an unacceptable social and economic risk factor for business and government partners.
For example, companies are less likely to invest in unstable and fragile regions, let alone partner with government agencies, where corruption is rife or where nothing is done to reduce insecurity, social tensions or discriminatory and unequal access to vital resources for marginalized communities. The risk of disaffected communities reaching to violence (terrorism) to voice their needs is real and PPPs as suggested here can reduce such dangers.
This project is intended to make economic and political sense by providing the following four groups of results:
• Assessments: research on how different groups of stakeholders, including non-profit civil society organisations, perceive the current contribution of PPPs to sustainable development and security. "Best practice" examples will be analysed and field studies will examine the extent to which the establishment of new PPPs can incorporate criteria for sustainable development and security, especially in countries where PPPs are in their infancy or where they do not exist yet;
• Benchmarking: a knowledge base will assemble information on the capacity of PPPs to bring businesses, government agencies and non-government and non-profit organisations to contribute to sustainable and equitable development and security;
• Tools: guidelines and models will be developed to help with the design and implementation of sustainable development and security considerations within PPPs agreements;
• Evaluations: with the information gathered, a measurement methodology is foreseen with two objectives: first, for PPP partners to evaluate the extent to which guidelines and tools for security and for sustainable and equitable development are operational; and second, measurement criteria according to which these same partners may periodically evaluate their own performance within their public-private partnerships.
The grant provided by the GIAN for this project totals SFr 309,000
Project Team
Prof. Paolo Urio , Coordinator, Department of Political Sciences , Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (SES) , University of Geneva (Unige) .
Dr. Marco Giugni , Co-coordinator, Laboratory of Applied Social and Political Research (RESOP) , Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (SES) , University of Geneva (Unige) .
Dr. Olivier Brenninkmeijer , Principal Member, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) .
Ms Tatiana Chernyavskaya , Principal Member, Public-Private Partnerships Alliance (PPP Alliance) , Economic Cooperation and Integration Division , United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) .
Mr Oleg Nikolaevich Gurynenko , Principal Member, -.
Dr. Geoffrey Hamilton , Principal Member, Trade Division , United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) .
Prof. Angang Hu , Principal Member, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Ms Agata Koslowska , Principal Member, Investment Support, Warsaw.
Dr. Patricia Lewis , Principal Member, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) .
Prof. Vladimir Varnavsky , Principal Member, Institute of World Economy and International Relations , Russian Academy of Sciences .
Prof. Yongheng Yang , Principal Member, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Mr Thomas Zacharewicz , Principal Member, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) .
Related Conferences
Project Workshop: Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) - 11 July 2006
Project Workshop
Creating a New Dynamic for Public-Private Partnerships for Peaceful and Sustainable Development:...
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Research Output
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Under What Conditions Can Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) Improve Efficiency, Equity, Security and Sustainable Development in Countries at the Pre-PPP Stage?
(available in English only) > more |