Africa Hall, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 29 September 2026 (ECA) - The Second Forum for Private-Public Partnership (PPP) Units in Africa opened here today under the theme “Making Social Sector PPPs Work: From Policy Ambition to Effective Service Delivery.” The two-day, hybrid forum is co-organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) and brings together PPP units from across the continent. It builds on an inaugural forum held in 2024, which convened over 30 PPP units around climate resilient infrastructure and set the stage for this edition's focus on social sectors.
The forum responds to a persistent implementation gap: infrastructure PPPs remain central to Africa's development agenda, but progress on the ground has lagged behind policy ambition, held back by limited project preparation capacity, affordability pressures and institutional and technical gaps. Social sector PPPs, in housing, healthcare, education, sanitation and energy, pose a distinct challenge. Unlike economically focused projects, they rarely generate enough user fee revenue to stand on their own, relying instead on availability payments, public subsidies, viability gap funding or blended finance, which shifts the core structuring question from demand risk to fiscal sustainability, affordability and performance accountability.
Organizers set out five objectives for the two days: building high level dialogue and commitment among finance and sector ministries; exchanging practical lessons and case studies across sectors; strengthening upstream project preparation and bankability; building regulatory and institutional capacity for localized, performance-based PPP models; and establishing a lasting community of practice that keeps translating policy into operational projects after the forum ends.
Sessions across the two days take up risk identification and allocation in social sector PPPs, financing mechanisms such as availability payments and viability gap funding, subnational and community level PPP models, and the contract management and monitoring systems needed to hold projects accountable over time. The forum opened with a Leaders' Dialogue among ministers and senior officials and continues through breakout sessions and case-based project clinics where practitioners work through real transactions.
The opening session included remarks from Olivier Pognon, Director of the African Legal Support Facility; Josephine Ngure, Country Manager, African Development Bank; Hanan Morsy, ECA's Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme; and Semereta Sewasew, Ethiopia's State Minister of Finance for Economic Cooperation, who welcomed delegates on behalf of the host government. Hanan Morsy told delegates that social sector PPPs must be judged by more than the capital they mobilize: success means services that are accessible, affordable and sustainable, and that genuinely improve people's lives. Turning that ambition into results, she said, depends on strong project preparation and strong partnerships.
Outcomes from the forum will feed into an action-oriented follow up framework, with participating countries naming focal points to track progress and periodic peer exchanges planned to sustain the work between forums. The forum continues through September 30 with sessions on structuring and financing social sector PPPs and country level clinics, closing with a session on next steps.
Issued by:
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Economic Commission for Africa
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