We were honoured to speak at the 5th United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) International PPP Forum that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 7 to 9, 2019. The meeting showcased projects and approaches to people-first public–private partnerships (PPPs). At the heart of the discussion was the design of the UNECE impact assessment tool to score PPP projects against the UN Sustainable Development Goals and people-first outcomes. We table that SAVi could support this framework, as it calculates the costs of material risks and externalities of projects and portfolios.
We also highlighted that PPPs bring significant fiscal risks on public balance sheets and that SAVi can also be used to calculate the costs of guarantees and other contingent liabilities. Stakeholders continue to view PPP as “free money,” while, in practice, nothing could be further from the truth. We very much look forward to continued work with the UNECE PPP Centre of Excellence and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the months to come.