Public private partnerships and the poor : pro-poor longer term (concession and lease) contracts

This guide aims to provide guidance on the design of concession contracts that provide pro-poor water services, and in doing so use experiences of private sector involvement in the water sector. One of the key objectives is to fill some of the gaps which exist in evidence-based reporting of the facts and issues around the impacts of public-private partnerships (PPP) on poor consumers. The authors do not attribute findings to any specific project, and they highlight particular contractual features only in the interests of sharing knowledge and improving services to all consumers, including the poor.
The discussions in this paper generally refer to the water sector, but are equally applicable to the sanitation sector. The paper shows how a PPP contract can be structured so that poor consumers are not disadvantaged, and may even be given some preference. However, the same objectives should be achieved if water supply is provided by the public sector alone. Therefore, the basic concepts have wide application to all combinations of public and private operations.