*** Please note that the statistics presented in this document are the results of preliminary analysis that may be adjusted as more data becomes available. ***
After months of collecting and scrubbing the data, USAID has released a dataset on its public-private partnerships (PPPs) since 2001. USAID estimates that it has engaged in some 1,600 PPPs since 2000. The data set contains 1,383 separate PPP entries, is over 90 percent complete. Until this most recent effort, there has been no systematic collection of data but rather periodic “data calls,” which in some years did not occur. Although the data is not complete, it is the best, most comprehensive information we have on USAID’s public-private partnerships. USAID uses two terms for its partnerships with private entities: public-private partnership (PPP) and Global Development Alliance (GDA). It considers a GDA to be a specific model of a PPP.
The Global Development Alliance Annual Program Statement sets out two basic criteria for a GDA. It must include at least one or more private sector entities, the list of which is inclusive:
- private businesses, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and investors
- foundations and philanthropists
- other for-profit and not-for-profit entities
In addition, other entities, broadly identified, may participate in a PPP.
The second criteria is the partner(s) must bring significant resources, ideas, technologies, and/or partners to the activity, and the value of that contribution (cash and in-kind) must at least equal the USAID contribution.
As to the definition of a public-private partnership, the background note to the new dataset uses essentially the same criteria as the GDA definition, with the exception that it does not reference the minimum 1:1 leverage ratio. As the definition of a GDA has been modified over the years, USAID uses the term PPP in a more generic sense in order to capture partnerships that might not fit the current GDA definition.
This brief is an initial presentation of some of the information the data provides. A more comprehensive understanding of the nature and results of USAID’s PPPs requires more detailed analysis of the data and of the supporting documentation.
