Learning from experience to improve future infrastructure public-private partnerships is a focal issue for policy makers, financiers, implementers, and private sector stakeholders. An extensive body of case studies and "lessons learned" aims to improve the likelihood of success and attempts to...

Governments must decide how to allocate limited resources for infrastructure development, particularly since financing gaps have been projected for the coming decades. Social cost-benefit analysis provides sound project appraisal and, when systematically applied, a basis for prioritization. In...

There is growing interest in using rail transit, trams, metros, light rail, to solve urban transportation problems, particularly road congestion and air pollution. In developing urban rail projects, a range of major cities around the world have turned to public-private partnership models, to...

In 2001-03 the municipal bond market in Mexico was among the most active in the developing world. Government officials had found a way to dramatically enhance the creditworthiness of local government debt without using sovereign guarantees. The technique, adapted in part from private sector...

In 2010 the World Bank approved a US$220 million loan for a Local Government and Decentralization project in Indonesia. The project aims to improve the accountability and reporting of the central government's Specific Purpose Grants (DAK). Piloted in four infrastructure sub-sectors-irrigation,...

The Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) has recently completed a project that made 35,000 new natural gas connections to poor households in Colombia's Caribbean coastal region. This partnership between GPOBA and Fundacion Promigas (a charitable foundation established by Colombian gas...

Honduras has achieved a reasonable level of access to water supply and sanitation, but gaps in coverage remain, especially in rural and peri-urban areas, and service quality for those with access is often poor. To help the Government of Honduras achieve universal coverage and improve service...

Providing safe drinking water to poor families in the coastal area of Andhra Pradesh is critical for the economic development of the region as well as to improve health and living conditions. A community water project supported by the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) is increasing...

A project in the Mexican state of Guanajuato shows how tying disbursements to specific outputs can provide incentives for effective implementation of a water sector strategy. The disbursements, from pooled government and World Bank loan funds, are made against connections to safe and reliable...