ABSTRACT
Public-private partnerships are increasingly popular in the field of development cooperation and sustainable development. Although not an altogether new phenomenon, the popularity of public-private partnerships in policy circles has grown steadily since the late 1980s to a point where their promotion seems to have become a dominant ‘development narrative’ (Entwistle and Martin 2005; Linder 1999; Roe 1991). Partnerships are promoted as the most logical solution to a variety of service delivery and development problems, and are often presented as ‘technical’, politically neutral solutions – a theme that parallels the Progressive Movement in the United States of America during the early twentieth century (Ferguson 1990).
