This book examines Public–Private Partnerships (PPP), and tracks the movement from early technical optimism to the reality of PPP as a phenomenon in the political economy. Today's economic turbulence sees many PPP assumptions changed: what contracts can achieve, who bears the real risks, where governments get advice and who invests. As the gap between infrastructure needs and available financing widens, governments and businesses both must seek new ways to make contemporary PPP approaches work.

This timely Research Agenda examines the ways in which public–private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure continue to excite policy makers, governments, research scholars and critics around the world. It analyzes the PPP research journey to date and articulates the lessons learned as a result of the increasing interest in improving infrastructure governance. Expert international contributors explore how PPP ideas have spread, transferred and transformed, and propose a range of future research directions.

'Far from simply being a form of cost sharing between the "state" and the "market," PPP has been celebrated by some, and condemned by others, as the champion of change in the new millennium. This book has been written by the best minds in education policy, political economy, and development studies. They convincingly argue that public private partnership represents a new mode of governance that ranges from covert support of the private sector (vouchers, subsidies) to overt collaboration with corporate actors in the rapidly growing education industry. The analyses are simply brilliant and indispensable for understanding how and why this particular best/worst practice went global.' – Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Columbia University, New York, US This insightful book brings together both academics and researchers from a variety of international organizations and aid agencies to explore the complexities of public private partnerships (PPPs) as a resurgent, hybrid mode of educational governance that operates across scales, from the community to the global. The contributors expertly study the different types of partnership arrangements and thoroughly critique the value of PPPs. Some chapters explore how PPPs, as a policy idea, have been constructed in transnational agendas for educational development and circulated globally, whilst other chapters explores the role and implications of PPPs in developing countries, providing arguments for and against an expanding reliance on PPPs in national educational systems. The theoretical framing of the book draws upon leading theories of international relations to develop a unique perspective on the global governance of education. It will prove insightful for both scholars and policymakers in public policy and education.

This guidebook offers training modules for the promotion of public-private partnerships in the delivery of public services. PPPs in theory are supposed to combine the best of both worlds. The private sector with its resources, management skills and technology; and the public sector with its regulatory actions and protection of the public interest provide a balance in delivering public service. PPPs though are also complex in nature, requiring different types of skills and new enabling institutions and they lead to changes in the status of public sector jobs. To work well, they require "good governance", that is, well-functioning institutions, transparent, efficient procedures and accountable and competent public and private sectors. This guidebook therefore seeks to elaborate best practice and is aimed at policymakers, government officials and the private sector.

The book offers an overview of international examples, studies, and guidelines on how to create successful partnerships in education. PPPs can facilitate service delivery and lead to additional financing for the education sector as well as expanding equitable access and improving learning outcomes.

Investment in infrastructure can be a driving force of the economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of shrinking fiscal space. Public-private partnerships (PPP) bring a promise of efficiency when carefully designed and managed, to avoid creating unnecessary fiscal risks. But fiscal illusions prevent an understanding the sources of fiscal risks, which arise in all infrastructure projects, and that in PPPs present specific characteristics that need to be addressed. PPP contracts are also affected by implicit fiscal risks when they are poorly designed, particularly when a government signs a PPP contract for a project with no financial sustainability. This paper reviews the advantages and inconveniences of PPPs, discusses the fiscal illusions affecting them, identifies a diversity of fiscal risks, and presents the essentials of PPP fiscal risk management.