Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are key to developing sustainable infrastructure that contributes to meeting global development goals. Well-designed PPPs can improve infrastructure service delivery and management, incentivize efficiency gains, and help increase infrastructure funding and financing—all of which can result in increased access to essential services. Including gender considerations in PPPs can help to further promote gender equality and achieve stronger socioeconomic impacts.
The panel at this UN Women CSW68 side event welcomed a discussion around what needs to be changed in the PPP industry to allow for the mainstreaming of gender in infrastructure and also introduced the PPP Gender Toolkit, developed by the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) and Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) with the aim of helping PPP practitioners prepare gender-informed PPP projects that can effectively close gender gaps. Gender-responsive PPPs incorporate design features, measures, and specific actions for reducing gender inequalities (or closing gender gaps) within the community of stakeholders that the project affects directly or indirectly.