Nature and Significance of Ppp

A recent World Bank report notes that across the world, per capita economic growth is driven by three information and communication technology (ICT)-related factors: investments in equipment and infrastructure, investments in human capital (i.e. in education and innovation), and effi cient use of labour (human resource) and capital that increases productivity (Schware 2005). These three factors have a direct impact on the provisioning of education. For one, the demand to adopt ICTsupported education services, or e-education, is outweighing the capacity of governments to adequately support education reform and expansion. At the same time, these three factors are key areas of interest to the private sector, which includes local, national, and international private commercial enterprises, non-government organizations (NGOs), not-for-profi t trusts, philanthropic organizations, and development agencies. This interest and support from the private sector can be leveraged to enable the sharing of resources to overcome such obstacles as limited funds and lack of technical expertise and project management capacities in ICT integration in education. Public and private enterprises associated with e-education projects are driven by different agendas, which results in divergent targets and bottom lines. However, they may share common ‘development’ interests in having educated and healthy citizens, in putting in place the physical and social infrastructure that would improve the quality of learning, and in expanding markets for sustainable growth of e-education. A sharing of resources between public and private enterprises in e-education interventions make possible a shift away from collective, taxbased fi nancing of educational infrastructure and services. Moreover, it is assumed that when public and private partners join forces to improve the provision of e-education services their complementary strengths can accelerate the pace of progress. Such partnerships draw in new ideas and capacities for problem-solving and leverage investments and professional expertise. Thus, the sum of the partnership wields greater infl uence, touches more people in need, and reaps benefi ts for all participants. The experience of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries shows that public-private partnerships (PPP) can play a vital role in mobilizing the scale of resources required for fi nancing and building ICT infrastructure, developing applications and locally relevant content, and developing the human capacity required for harnessing the full capacity of ICT productive tools (Ichiro and McNamara 2003).