Economic Risks and Benefits of Public Private Partnerships



ABSTRACT

This is a study on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in health services delivery. It is concluded that although there has been very strong satisfactions with the performance of PPPs in the country, given the long history of the marginalisation of the private sector which has contributed to poor capacity and mistrust between the government and the private sector, the areas of partnerships are increasing in number and demand, therefore interventions for improving PPPs should be not only a collaborative effort among the PPP key stakeholders, but should also observe the partnerships norms. Building on the attained successes and working on the existing constraints should be the motive of the partners to improve partnerships in health service delivery.

Private sector healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries is sometimes argued to be more efficient, accountable, and sustainable than public sector delivery. Conversely, the public sector is often regarded as providing more equitable and evidence-based care. We performed a systematic review of research studies investigating the performance of private and public sector delivery in low- and middle-income countries

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT2

Introduction4

Discussion4

Potential Benefits And Risks To Manage5

Debate9

Conclusion10

References12

Economic Risks and Benefits of Public Private Partnerships

Introduction

A collaborative project involving the state apparatus and private companies, with the latter involved in some aspects of the provision of public services. Such partnerships have been promoted as part of the neo-liberalism agenda for two main reasons. Ideologically, private companies are presented as more efficient at managing large projects than the public sector (cf. privatization). Pragmatically, undertaking developments in this way can allow governments to avoid bearing the capital costs in their budgets - thereby reducing the public-sector borrowing requirement and, it is believed, interest rates and/or avoiding large increases in taxes to pay the upfront costs.

Examples of PPPs include New York's Central Park, which is managed for the City's Department of Parks and Recreation by the Central Park Conservancy, and an extension of California's State Route 125 south of San Diego, which was built by a private company - California Transportations Ventures Inc; the Lane Cove Tunnel under Sydney Harbour in Australia was constructed under a similar scheme, with the contractor then operating it on a 33-year lease. In the UK, the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which control use of the country's airspace, is part-owned by the government (which has a 49 per cent stake), with most of the remainder held by a consortium of companies involved in the airline business: as with many such projects in the UK, the work of NATS is overseen by an independent regulator, which can control prices and the quality of service provision.

Discussion

Several ways to define and classify PPPs for health have been proposed. The most frequently used is based on the nature of the partnership or its goals. The majority of PPPs tend to cluster into partnerships for disease control, which in turn is split into two categories: product development (PD PPPs) and access to medicines (Access PPPs). PD PPPs focus on the development of ...