Public Private People Partnership Research Articles

Developing public private people partnership (4P) for post disaster infrastructure procurement

Purpose – The paper aims to integrate relevant “people” into public-private partnerships (PPP) to establish a public–private–people partnership (4P) approach that targets more sustainable and better value for money post-disaster infrastructure projects. This recognises “people” as major stakeholders apart from the public and private sectors. This paper also draws on a parallel study of relationship management (RM) to counteract problems arising from multiple participants and to synergise the public, private and “people” groupings. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, a case study and a validation exercise through a focus group meeting were adopted to obtain empirical data and develop the 4P framework. Triangulation research strategy combining literature review, interviews and questionnaire survey were adopted in the parallel study of RM. Findings – It is concluded that 4P has great potential to achieve the targets of enhanced sustainability and value of money in post-disaster scenarios. In addition, “people” can provide the “missing link” in traditional PPP to further cement the partnership and achieve effective and integrated partnership between multiple participants. Originality/value – This paper adds a new dimension to PPP in proposing the integration of “people” into PPP to address prevalent gaps in identifying overall sustainable value. It also develops a practical 4P framework to guide practitioners who may wish to test it, to whatever extent possible. In parallel, it provides a methodological and theoretical foundation for such public, private and people partnerships in post-disaster infrastructure development.

Reinforcing relationships for resilience – by embedding end-user ‘people’ in public–private partnerships

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) target overall benefits from mobilising private resources in delivering public infrastructure. Their longer time spans generate higher risks, hence the greater need for resilience in PPPs, compared to traditional procurement. PPP infrastructure outcomes should include both sustainable and resilient built infrastructure, as well as reliable and resilient service delivery. The public–private cross-sectoral relationships can be significant contributors to resilience. Previous research findings show that public–private relationships are still predominantly formal in PPPs. However, appropriate informal relationships can foster mutual trust and better teamworking that trigger self-adjustment mechanisms to overcome adversities and enhance resilience. Integrating relevant ‘people’ into PPPs to establish a public–private–people partnership (4P) is proposed to reinforce formal–informal relationships, while enhancing relevant ‘social infrastructure’, which could then lead to more resilient and better ‘value for money’ built infrastructure. Findings from another recent study demonstrate the value of 4P in pre-disaster planning. 4P also helps to develop resilient ‘social infrastructure’ for post-disaster reconstruction of sustainable built infrastructure. Conceptual diagrams are developed to summarise how the 4th P could reinforce public–private relationships and inject resilience into a potentially unstable PPP system.

ASHAs in rural India, the ray of hope for diabetes care

AbstractOut of 1.21 billion population of India, 69% of them live in rural areas. There is a wide disparity in the distribution of health infrastructure and services in rural areas as compared to that of urban areas. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched in 2005, aimed to bridge this gap has introduced Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), as health activists into the rural health care. ASHA is an acronym for Accredited Social Health Activists and she has been so far instrumental in facilitating institutionalised delivery, child immunisation, ensuring family planning, besides organising village nutrition day. She has been the vital link between the community and the health care. India, as a nation that is progressing is trying to combat communicable diseases significantly but it is also witnessing the surfacing of a different problem. There is an increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes which poses a big economic burden so much so that NCDs have been labelled as ′a health and developmental emergency′. Diabetes competes with other health concerns in a struggle to secure government health funding. In this resource-limited context, innovative methods are required to reach out to people at grass root levels. ASHA, which means hope in Sanskrit, can be true to her name in providing increased access to diabetes care to the rural population, if adequately trained and empowered. A multi-stakeholder approach through a public-private-people partnership (PPPP) is needed to tackle the issue with this kind of magnitude. The current review focuses on providing suggestions on utilising ASHAs′ services in spreading awareness on diabetes and ensuring that people with diabetes (PWD) receive optimal diabetes care.

A public private people partnerships (P4) process framework for infrastructure development in Hong Kong

Public private partnerships (PPPs) have been widely adopted to provide essential social and economic infrastructure and services. However, there is currently no systematic mechanism governing how social concerns should be captured at different stages of a PPP project. This paper, therefore, advocates a rethinking of the pragmatic issues underpinning public engagement and suggests a process framework that puts people as a major stakeholder for implementing PPP schemes. This public private people partnerships (P4) process framework embraces the bottom-up participative strategies which bring the public engagement clearly visible for infrastructure planning and policy making. With this newly developed framework and associated engagement strategies, decision-making power can deviate from policy makers, who are traditionally holding the ultimate decision authority, towards the citizens through proactive engagement. Such strategy can help improve the development process by moderating the risk of unforeseen oppositions, building clear responsibilities and rights, and creating opportunities for public inputs. It is anticipated that formulating such effective and genuine public engagement framework for PPP projects would assist government bodies, not only in Hong Kong but also other parts of the world, to better realise the changing public aspirations and demands for infrastructure planning and policy formulation.

Including prospective tenants and homeowners in the urban development process in Finland

The twofold purpose of this paper is to establish the prospective inhabitants as a part of the development process, and to provide an overview of participatory planning in the context of Finnish urban residential public–private partnerships (PPPs). This overview examines how the future inhabitants of new residential developments can contribute to informed decision-making within a PPP framework. Communicative planning theory serves as a framework to compare the urban development process from the point of view of future inhabitants. Finnish case studies are used to compare the traditional public-led processes with processes based on PPPs. This comparison is discussed within the context of PPPs and how they may evolve further and develop into a public–private-people partnership (4P) model. The examination of the case studies suggests that involving future inhabitants as stakeholders in the urban planning development process would lead to and require new methods of participation. These methods potentially impact the PPP process as a whole and on several levels. In the Finnish examples discussed here, these range from elements of general planning to individual house design. The research, whilst drawing on the broad field of PPP research, is based on Finnish case studies only. However, this research suggests that the 4P approach is a practical model which may fill the gap between international PPP theory and local, practical solutions for the planning of urban development, both in Finland and elsewhere. Future research can look at this model in other PPP jurisdictions and contexts. The 4P model can be used to establish new methods to plan and develop local infrastructure which meets the needs of future inhabitants. The findings of this paper emphasise the crucial role of future inhabitants in the PPP process. The conclusions points out the possibilities for broad and open participation in urban planning and development processes. The 4P model is found to be a potentially valuable theoretical and practical concept for use in PPP urban developments.

A new customer‐oriented participation method for communicative planning

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the identification and engagement of future inhabitants in urban planning processes using a new “public–private–people partnerships (4Ps)” participation method, where public, private and people are in partnership. This form of participation gives new information, related to consumers’ residential choice, unlike those environments produced by using other participation methods.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study is based in innovation theory where end‐users are primary stakeholders in the innovation process, and even innovators themselves. A case study of a new participation method based on a two‐phase internet questionnaire is used to research practical solutions in integrating end‐users into urban planning process.FindingsThis paper demonstrates that the widely used theory of communicative action in planning and its aim of increasing citizens’ activity in planning and development processes can be developed to the stage that it also includes future inhabitants as stakeholders. Thus urban planning processes become innovative and customer‐oriented through their openness, end‐user orientation and interpretative nature.Originality/valueThe case study findings indicate that the new participation method described here gives flexibility and benefits to all stakeholders and is a method to create consumer desirable neighborhoods. Engaging future inhabitants in planning processes opens previously unseen potential for including consumerist possibilities for cities and developers. This paper illustrates that this new 4Ps participation method makes comprehensive participatory planning and development possible through giving an opportunity to include consumers’ opinions and needs into an alternative to traditional communicative planning.

05/02120 Distributed generation: definition, benefits and issues

Norway is a major renewable energy developer in Europe, mainly through its development of hydropower. Research has shown that solar energy also has potential in Norway, however, the cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity was only 120 MW at the end of 2019, representing 4.1% of the total electricity generation. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the main barriers to diffusing photovoltaics for residential buildings from the public sector, private sector, and the people's perspectives in Norway. Furthermore, it analyzes solar development, policies, and models in different countries, and proposes a potential model and solutions to overcome barriers. The results show that the high initial costs of photovoltaics and limited information and awareness of the possible benefits are the main barriers for the people. For the private sector, limited funding and few pilot projects to learn from, as well as risk uncertainty are the main barriers. The main concern in the public sector is the low application of existing incentives. Public-private-people partnerships (PPPP) have a big potential to overcome these barriers by dividing the high initial costs into more affordable sums, facilitating the information flow among different sectors, and involving all three sectors to create new incentives. In addition, Norway is well-suited for PPPP, as the citizens pay much attention to sustainable development, and there is already a close collaboration between the public and private sectors in the energy sector. Finally, three concrete solutions using PPPP are proposed: design a co-investment solution, provide information sharing platforms, and create new incentives.