Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships

This book argues that despite the hype within many policy circles, there is actually very little evidence to support the presumed benefits of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in reducing poverty and addressing inequalities in the provision of and access to public services. Taking a cross-sectoral comparative approach, this book investigates how PPPs have played out in practice, and what the implications have been for inequalities. Drawing on a range of empirical case studies in education, healthcare, housing and water, the book picks apart the roles of PPPs as financing mechanisms in several international and national contexts and considers the similarities and differences between sectors. The global COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant questions about the future of social provision and through its analysis of the emergence and expansion of the role of PPPs, the book also makes a vital contribution to current discussion over this rapidly changing landscape. Overall, this wide-ranging guide to understanding and evaluating the role of PPPs in the Global South will be useful to researchers within development, international relations, economics, and related fields, as well as to policy makers and practitioners working in development-related policy.

1. Critical Reflections on Public Private Partnerships: An Introduction Jasmine Gideon and Elaine Unterhalter 2. Situating PPPs Ben Fine 3. Beyond Typologies: What is a Public Private Partnership? Maria Jose Romero and Elisa Van Waeyenberge 4. Slum Redevelopment in Mumbai as a PPP Amita Bhide 5. Moving the Goalposts: Reconfiguring the Role of the Private Sector in the Provision of Water Kate Bayliss 6. Precise Evasions: PPPs, Aid and Education Elaine Unterhalter and Lynsey Robinson 7. New policy Intercessors: Philanthropy and Public Private Partnerships Carolina Junemann and Antonio Olmedo 8. African Universities and the Rise of Public-Private Partnerships: Illustrations from Senegal Sonia Languille 9. Health PPPs in Latin America: A Review Maria Jose Romero and Jasmine Gideon 10. History and Characteristics of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the Health Service System in India Rama V. Baru and Madhurima Nundy 11. Win-Win Collaboration? Understanding Donor-Private Sector Engagement in Health and its Implications for Universal Health Coverage Jessica Hamer and Anuj Kapilashrami 12. What Can Be Done? The Abidjan Principles as a Human Rights framework to Evaluate PPPs in Education Elaine Unterhalter, Maria Ron Balsera and Delphine Dorsi

Jasmine Gideon is Reader in Gender, Health and International Development in the Department of Geography at Birkbeck, University of London, UK Elaine Unterhalter is Professor of Education and International Development, at University College London, UK, and Co-Director of the Centre for Education and International Development (CEID)