For decades, much of Africa's infrastructure agenda has focused on expanding road and transport links, increasing electricity generation and modernizing ports. Another challenge is now emerging with equal urgency: the need to develop infrastructure that shapes everyday life - hospitals, education, housing, and water and sanitation.
The scale of the needs illustrates the magnitude of the challenge. Nearly 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to basic drinking water services, while more than 98 million children, adolescents and young people of primary and secondary school age are out of school. This unmet demand is being compounded by the continent's rapid urbanisation, as infrastructure and services in many cities struggle to keep pace with population growth.
For governments, the equation is a difficult one: they need to invest more at a time when fiscal space is often constrained. In this context, public-private partnerships (PPPs), historically concentrated in transport and energy, are attracting growing interest in social infrastructure and other public services in healthcare, education and housing.
This evolution creates opportunities, but it also calls for caution: a hospital or a school cannot be financed in the same way as a motorway or a power plant. A motorway can generate revenue through tolls; a power plant generally has an off-taker and relatively predictable contractual cash flows. Social services follow a different logic: they must remain accessible, including to those who cannot bear the full cost themselves.
This is the central challenge of social PPPs: making a project sufficiently viable to mobilise private-sector capital, expertise and innovation, without compromising access to services or creating an unsustainable burden for the State.
Private financing does not make public expenditure disappear. Where user revenues are insufficient, subsidies, guarantees or availability payments will be required. Whilst these mechanisms can make a project bankable, they also commit public finances for decades. The essential question therefore arises before an investor is even sought: is a PPP genuinely the most appropriate instrument for a social infrastructure?
Not all social infrastructure is suited to the PPP model nor does private-sector participation mean that an entire service should be transferred to a private operator. In healthcare, private participation may focus on the construction, equipment or maintenance of a facility without extending to medical services. In housing, commercially viable components can help support the delivery of more affordable units. The structure must reflect the economics of the sector and the purpose of the public service, rather than being based on a predetermined model.
This brings the discussion back to a more fundamental question: what does it take to make a social-sector PPP work? The answer lies not in the PPP framework alone, but in the decisions made throughout the project cycle - from identifying a project that is genuinely suitable for private participation, to preparing it adequately, determining the appropriate commercial and financing structure, allocating risks realistically and engaging the market effectively.
The role of the African Legal Support Facility is precisely to help African governments navigate these key decision points within the project cycle. By providing advisory and capacity-building support, the ALSF helps governments assess, structure and procure projects in ways that balance public policy objectives with commercial realities. In 2025 alone, the ALSF approved 69 projects worth USD 28.7 million across Africa, with more than one-fifth of these operations focused on infrastructure PPPs. This experience has highlighted not only the importance of getting these decisions right, but also the value of sharing practical experience across countries on what works, what does not, and how different approaches can be adapted to different contexts.
It is this exchange of practical experience that will be at the heart of the 2026 PPP Units Forum. Organised by the ALSF, the African development bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Forum will bring together PPP Units, governments, investors, development partners and technical advisers in Addis Ababa on 29–30 September to explore how social-sector PPPs can be effectively developed and implemented. Under the theme "Making Social Sector PPPs Work: From Policy Ambition to Effective Service Delivery," participants will share experiences and examine the practical challenges involved in project preparation, financing, risk allocation, private-sector participation and the institutional capabilities required to deliver social-sector PPPs effectively.
Africa has made significant progress in putting in place the frameworks and institutions needed to support PPPs. The next challenge is to translate those foundations into social-sector projects that are appropriately selected, prepared and structured, and capable of delivering sustainable and accessible public services. For governments, investors and their partners, this will require continued learning, adaptation and exchange of practical experience. Ultimately, the measure of a successful social-sector PPP is not simply whether a transaction can be concluded, but whether it delivers the infrastructure and services that people need, in a way that remains affordable, sustainable and effective over time.
