IKD lunchtime seminar: Public private partnerships and the financialisation of infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa

Christodoulou Building CMR11, Milton Keynes

Speaker: Dr Elisa Van Waeyenberge (SOAS, University of London)

Lunch from 12:00.  Presentation from 12:30.

Abstract: There has been a revival of advocacy of the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure provision (see Bayliss and Van Waeyenberge 2017). The current PPP revival, while building on the pro-privatisation rhetoric of the past three decades, represents a departure from previous privatisation policy due to the central role played by global finance. This has led to a shift in infrastructure policy which is increasingly focused on reconstructing sector investment around the needs of investors. Developing countries, rather than designing comprehensive investment plans, instead have lists of PPP projects that are up for sale internationally. This presentation seeks to shed light on the actors and processes involved in the attempts to roll out PPPs across sub-Saharan Africa and to assess the implications of PPP-promoting measures for the conceptualisation of the policy space around infrastructure. It situates PPP advocacy within the (broader) context of the increasingly financialised nature of development policies and argues that the promotion of PPPs undermines the policy space for alternative avenues for infrastructure provision that offer greater potential for social citizenship via democratic accountability and broadened access to quality public services. As such, PPPs are seen as a wedge in how the policy space around infrastructure provision is being redefined, with important repercussions over and above their (relatively small) immediate financial significance.

Bio: Elisa is a Senior Lecturer in Development Economics at SOAS University of London. Her research interests include alternative macroeconomic policies in developing countries, the role of International Financial Institutions across policy and scholarly realms, as well as the financing of infrastructure and public service provision. She has authored several articles on these topics as well as edited books with colleagues, including The Political Economy of Development: The World Bank, Neoliberalism and Development Research, together with Kate Bayliss and Ben Fine.

Seminar is FREE to attend. Please register, via FASS-Collaborations FASS-Collaborations@open.ac.uk