en
Co-funded by the European Union
Co-funded by the European Union
Location
Malawi
Topic
Business Regulation and Policy, Public Private Dialogue
Beneficiary
The Public Private Partnership Commission
Status
Completed
Year
2021
The PPPC, established in 2011, is the implementation Agency for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Malawi. It develops guidelines on best practices to assist sector Ministries in the roll-out of their PPP projects, works closely with the Ministry of Finance in the review and assessment of PPP projects and provides advice and support to Contracting Authorities.
Malawi has decided to increasingly rely on PPPs for the development of infrastructure. The PPP Commission has identified the lack of expertise on PPPs within the Commission itself, contracting authorities at the national and local level, and the Private Sector, as a major constraint on the development of PPPs in the country.
The objective of this intervention was to draft a skills gap assessment report for PPP stakeholders in Malawi and a capacity building strategy to address the identified gaps in a sustainable and institutional manner, allowing for a long-term increase in PPP capacity in Malawi.
The PPP Commission of Malawi was supported to develop a capacity-building strategy. This included a skills-gap assessment of both public (the PPP Commission, sector ministries, Ministry of Finance, public agencies) and private stakeholders on the topic of Public-Private Partnerships.
The capacity –building strategy identified priority topics for skills reinforcement as well as existing trainings which could help increase capacity.
After the development of the strategy, the PPP Commission managed to identify funding so that part of its staff followed the Foundation phase and Preparation phase of the PPP Certification Programme. As of July 2023, discussions are ongoing with financial partners to also train staff from sector ministries, so that they can improve their capacity to prepare projects, as well as cabinet ministers and members of parliament, as recommended by the capacity-building strategy.
This will allow the PPP Commission to better play their role in supporting contracting authorities to identify potential PPP projects, undertake feasibility studies, supervise procurement processes and negotiate with providers.