Principles for a "Best Practice" Strategy in the Use of Public-Private Partnerships in German Development Assistance

Project Context

Public-private partnerships (PPP) represent a new and promising instrument in German development assistance, with over two thousand PPP projects undertaken by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) between 1999 and 2005. These include technical cooperation projects with a "PPP mainstreaming" component and projects financed by the PPP Facility, which was established by the BMZ to assist the flexible introduction of innovative PPP instruments. In early 2008, a re-launch of the PPP program will take place, drawing upon successes and weaknesses as well as upon areas of potential optimisation and best practice. A review of donor organisation best practice undertaken by the Global Public Policy Institute offered the opportunity to give a new stimulus to the BMZ’s work in the area of PPP.

Project objectives

To enable the German government to effectively develop PPP strategy in its development assistance, BMZ commissioned the Global Public Policy Institute to conduct an international comparative bench-marking analysis. The analysis reviewed the BMZ’s PPP approach and conducted a systematic comparative analysis of the PPP instruments of other states’ bilateral development institutions (for example, USAID, DFID etc.) and of multilateral development programmes (for example, the UNDP’s Growing Sustainable Business Initiative). This analysis identified international best practices in PPP, which will directly aid the development of BMZ’s PPP strategy. It will also launch a dialogue on PPP practice between relevant international donor organisations and lay the basis for fruitful future cooperation. 

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