The Report on the Commission on Africa cites a "policy mistake founded in the new dogma of the 1980's and 1990's asserting that infrastructure would be financed by private sector". If private sector investment in public infrastructure and services is not the answer, then what is? Building on the Monterrey Consensus, this report - prepared by the World Economic Forum and Overseas Development Institute for the UN Financing for Development Initiative and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation - looks afresh at the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in low-income countries. The focus is on education, health and water and sanitation: three-quarters of the sector-specific indicators for meeting the MDGs. A case is made for broadening the conventional private investor model of PPPs, to one that utilises a fuller range of core business competencies to address persistent development challenges, and brings these alongside private philanthropic resources, as well as the pro-poor technologies and political legitimacy of civil society organisations.