Harking the holonomic of public-private partnerships: A sounding of McNamara’s World Bank

Abstract

Public policy is analysis and synthesis. Yet communication straddles the two. The depth of analysis and rigour of synthesis is in tension with the efficacy of communication. Consequently, a strong policy requires a holonomic space that reduces tension. This paper illuminates that argument. It is a contrasted case study of two policy perspectives on Africa, motivated by the concept of public-private partnerships (PPP). The paper contrasts the nexus of Robert McNamara in the late sixties with the zeitgeist of the infrastructure gap at the unfolding of the new millennium. That contrast illuminates Africa’s failure to capture the fundamentals of PPP. Africa sees PPP as a subject of finance, not efficiency. The concept has been reduced to a yawning gap in finance. And a key reason for that myopic view is that banner called infrastructure gap. That flaw reflects not just weakness in the agency of policy. It also yearns for a holonomic space of policy. McNamara benefitted from the post-war space. After this paper was drafted, COVID-19 struck the world. This pandemic offers space for Africa (and the world) to mould thrusts of policy comparable to McNamara’s nexus