1. Objectives

Project purpose

1.1. The purpose of this project is to develop a UNECE standard reflecting international best practices in the management of concessions-based PPP programs with the objective of achieving a) increased confidence in PPP as a viable procurement option and b) high success rates of roads PPP projects worldwide.

Project scope

2.1. Governments have been confronted with the difficulty to identify the right projects or the right PPP models from successful international PPP experience that can be used as a basis for their own programs. Access to best practices is a remedy against repeating common mistakes and building efficiency into national PPP programs.

2.2. Roads PPP is a well-documented subject, both as it concerns best practices and case studies authored by private and public entities and multilateral finance institutions, specifically. However, what has largely been absent in the documentation are the ‘bad practices’: well-intended, but counter-productive practices or ill-intended practices which have achieved their objective, often exploiting loopholes in legislation, tender procedures or PPP agreements. The primary reason for the absence of analyses of bad practices is that many reports are conceived as success stories celebrating achievements – bad practices leading to sub-optimal outcomes or outright failures are preferred to be left untold.

2.3. This project aims to rally support from both public and private PPP practitioners, the academic society and major stakeholders to document best practice to arrive at comprehensive standards serving as an effective tools for governments to successfully navigate through the complexity of PPP programs.

2.4. The sub-categories that will be considered will include national, local international roads and all types of contracts, such as DBFMO, Toll, Shadow Toll, BOT, BOOT and other. Depending on the characteristics and nature of roads (national, local and internationally) appropriate model(s) will be identified during the process of developing standards.

2.5. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) scope will use as a point of reference the United Nations’ definition of PPP, which can be found in the "Guidebook on Promoting Good Governance on PPP" (http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/ceci/publications/ppp.pdf).

2. References