IT market research company International Data Corporation (IDC) has said that governments across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are increasingly looking to utilise public-private partnerships (PPPs) to gain efficiencies, mobilize additional resources, and extend services to their citizens, residents, and visitors.
According to IDC, such partnerships are popular in the traditional fields of mega-infrastructure projects such as roads and mass transit systems.
But PPPs are also proving popular as an alternate means of expanding and enhancing the delivery of services, modernising education and healthcare systems, and increasing the availability and diffusion of ICT without necessarily having to directly allocate capital expenditure to such initiatives, said IDC.
The World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure database indicates that, while the MEA region accounted for approximately 6% (or $47.84bn) of global investment on PPP infrastructure projects between 1990-2000, that share grew to approximately 15% (or $126.50bn) in the period between 2001 and 2008.
IDC Government Insights Middle East, Africa, and Turkey senior research analyst Mukesh Chulani said across the region, various PPP initiatives are being undertaken by private ICT players, with the support of the respective governments, to build infrastructure and deliver services across the judiciary, transportation, education, and healthcare sectors.
Chulani added, "There are various highly innovative information and communication technologies embedded within PPP initiatives regionally, ranging from a traffic incident automation solution in South Africa to a national training program aimed at developing basic ICT skills among high school students in Turkey."
"Given the ease of deployment and wide-ranging applicability of the SMS for Life project, it would make sense to replicate such a PPP initiative elsewhere, extending its reach to improve the visibility of medication inventory levels for other disease areas as well," said Chulani.
"However, despite the clear progress that is being made across the Middle East and Africa, the region’s governments have yet fully to harness the true potential of PPPs. More work needs to be done to educate internal stakeholders, develop and administer effective policies, and assess the capabilities of existing public sector institutions in order to aid the implementation and management of successful PPPs."
