Popularizing PPPs: PPP Menu by Casa Agra and PPP 101 AVP

Should a handful of experts, lawyers and consultants have monopoly over knowledge about public-private partnerships (PPPs)? What constitutes the PPP learning ecology? Why is learning critical for success of the PPP program and projects?

We are all stakeholders. Parties to a PPP arrangement—a government agencies and private proponents—are not the only stakeholders of PPPs. We are all stakeholders. “We” here means the whole government bureaucracy, regulatory agencies, courts, legislators, civil-society organizations, church, academe, taxpayers, consumers and ordinary citizens. Whatever the government does, fails to do or improperly does affect all of us.

• We (should) all want the same thing. We all want a comfortable life. We all want quality of life better than what we enjoy today. We must want these also for others. PPPs are geared toward these goals. This is at the heart or, rather, the heart of PPPs.
• We must be part of the engagement. Since PPPs must serve our interest, then we must be part of the solution and not just wait. The solution does not only lie with those in power, the formal leaders, the experts and the learned. Clients when dealing with lawyers, patients when consulting their physicians, students when attending class and the public when being served by public officials are and should not be treated as passive fence sitters or tabula rasa (blank slate). Real change only happens only if we all part of the solution. We cannot be part of the solution if we are not empowered by knowledge.
• Learn. Unlearn. Relearn. Innovation, new thinking, goal-oriented systems and people-centered leadership require all stakeholders—us—to go through this cycle of learning, unlearning and relearning. One of things we all have to learn is to accept the fact that we all should learn about PPPs. Another would be to know the different modalities and the manner by which private proponents should be selected. We must also unlearn the notion that PPP is confined to the modalities under the build-operate-transfer law. There is more to PPPs than this law. We must relearn to learn and work together. This is the PPP Learning Ecology.
• Columnist’s contribution. Since his prior stint in the government, this columnist has contributed to this learning environment. He has developed a PPP template ordinance for local government units (LGUs). His template has been referred to by some 70 LGUs, including all the barangays of Bataan Province. In 2017 he has conducted 50 seminars and briefings on PPP before public- and private-sector audiences.
• Two education materials. On the occasion of his birthday last week, he launched two education materials that seek to popularize PPPs. The PPP Menu of Casa Agra contains 25 PPP options—modalities, projects, selection procedures, contributions, risks, and bidding parameters, among others. The Agra PPP 101 AVP, viewable in YouTube, instructs us in 11 minutes about the basic aspects of PPPs in the Philippines. All these are readily downloadable in his web site www.albertocagra.com.

He hopes that with this menu and AVP, PPP knowledge will be de-monopolized. PPP learning is for all.