​This paper presents a literature review on the value of having a central unit to coordinate Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and to assess whether there is any literature that is able to adequately provide such evidence.

The review specifically targets research based on the value of centralised PPP Units, the review does not look at the value of PPPs in general or any other type of PPP arrangement as the review is aimed at providing evidence in terms of decision making to whether to set up, or not, a centralised PPP Unit.

The review begins by defining PPP units and describing the role of PPP units and the varied functions that they carry out (Section 2). The paper then moves on to describe how PPPs and PPP units manage risk allocation between the government and the private sector, how PPP units can address failures in PPP programmes, the rationale (i.e. advantages) of setting up a centralised PPP unit instead of government agencies individually procuring PPP projects, and finally describes how the success of PPP units is measured (Section 3). The review concludes with a short summary of the lessons learned (Section 4).

Alberto Lemma