On July 8, 2025, the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals (WAPPP) organized a “Launch Session: Guidelines on Small-Scale Public-Private Partnerships.”
The session was devoted to defining the concept of ‘small-scale PPPs’, outlining the main benefits of such projects and reviewing the key principles and recommendations for developing and implementing them.
Small-scale public private partnerships are smaller-sized infrastructure or service delivery partnerships between the public and private sectors. They are typically more community-focused than large-scale PPPs, and hence implemented at the municipal, regional, or subnational levels.
Small-scale PPPs are becoming increasingly important as a mechanism for ensuring access to essential social and economic infrastructure and services at the local level, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDE). These partnerships tend to focus on projects requiring lower levels of capital investment, particularly in the development of educational and healthcare infrastructure, water supply and sanitation systems, street lighting and local energy systems.
During the event, the important document ‘Guidelines on Small-Scale Public-Private Partnerships‘ was presented. Prepared by the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals (WAPPP), it is based on the results of 25 discussion sessions (18 webinars and seven round tables) held in 2024 on various issues related to the planning, structuring and management of small-scale PPPs. These guidelines aim to support local authorities and local governments in preparing and implementing PPP projects effectively in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Recognizing that conventional PPP frameworks often focus on large, capital-intensive infrastructure projects, these guidelines aim to fill a critical gap. They tailor the SSPPP process to be simpler, more flexible, and more accessible, while still ensuring due diligence, transparency, and public value. The guidelines are underpinned by good international practices but are adapted to the unique contexts and constraints of small-scale projects.
Roopa Nair, Senior Partnership at the WAPPP, discussed in more detail the benefits of small-scale PPPs, explaining how such PPPs
- meet community needs by focusing on local infrastructure development and public service delivery priorities
- promote the socio-economic development of local communities by improving access to essential services and making communities more resilient and self-sufficient
- create space for smaller players, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to gain experience in implementing PPP projects, building capacity, and scaling up their activities in the construction, management, and delivery of infrastructure and public services
- contribute to strengthening trust within communities by engaging and interacting with them at all stages of project preparation and implementation. This will ensure a sense of ownership and, overall, a better perception of projects.
Rupa Nair drew the attention of session participants to the potential for scaling up and replicating successful small-scale PPPs , which would enable local authorities and local governments to implement pilot initiatives, improve implementation models, and scale up and adapt successful PPP models to different contexts and conditions. Also, due to lower financing requirements and risks, small-scale PPPs have the potential to broaden their investment sources by mobilizing financing from local financial institutions and/or using blended finance, combining public partner budget funds or donor grant funds with private capital.
Overall, small-scale PPPs complement national and subnational PPP programs by filling critical gaps in service delivery and improving access to infrastructure and services in communities.
Ziad-Alexandre Hayek, President of the WAPPP, emphasizes the need to implement 10,000 PPP projects each year (across all levels of government: national, sub-national, regional, local, and municipal) in order for private sector investment in infrastructure to truly advance the SDGs.
Ziad-Alexandre Hayek provided recommendations for small-scale PPPs, which included the following.
- adapt the legislative, institutional, and operational frameworks for small-scale PPPs, including revising national PPP laws to ensure greater flexibility and empower local authorities and local governments to act as public partners (contracting authorities), allowing them to assume financial and other obligations under PPP contracts; if the projects and/or programs under which PPP projects are pre-approved by national financial and budget authorities
- ensure proper focus is placed on multi-project programmes and scalability, including enabling several local authorities to join forces to implement projects that cannot be implemented at the level of a single community. Ziad-Alexandre Hayek recommends standardized contract templates, bidding documents, and evaluation criteria to support efficient replication of small-scale PPPs
- streamline project preparation and procurement processes, ensuring the possibility to select, on a case-by-case basis: (i) the critical due diligence requirements in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA); (ii) risk profile; (iii) tender procedure. And also by clear thresholds for approvals by relevant national or local authorities based on project scale and complexity to avoid unnecessary bureaucratic delays
- leverage technology and artificial intelligence for project assessment, design, and tendering, improving transparency and efficiency
- build and improve dedicated small-scale PPPs institutional capacity by establishing and training specialized multidisciplinary teams within existing structures in local government executive bodies and/or by engaging national and regional PPP units to provide specialized support
- create market incentives for local actors and attract investment from local and regional small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that align with the project’s goals, scale and sector.
Joti Bisby, member of the WAPPP Executive Committee, highlighted the following recommendations:
- design scalable and market-oriented financing mechanisms using blended finance approaches, including viability gap funds (VGFs), grants, municipal bonds, while balancing Government-pays PPP and User-pays PPP models to ensure financial sustainability;
- establish simplified yet effective contract management systems, taking into account the limited project management capacity that typically exists at the local level;
- enhance local community participation, including through broad consultations with local community members and their involvement in the planning and design of small-scale PPPs.
At the end of the session, it was emphasized that small-scale PPPs can be a key factor in the future success of communities and, at the same time, can be applied not only at the local level, but also for the implementation of small-scale national projects, particularly in the areas of health, education, and digitalization. The WAPPP guidelines address today’s challenges and facilitate the scaling up of PPP projects at the community level.