De-marginalising the public in PPP projects through multi-stakeholders management

Various problems have been encountered on PPP initiatives around the world that have eventually led to PPP projects failures. Public opposition due to various factors has been reported as the main reason for failure in several instances. A significant number of these factors point to two interconnected aspects: definition of the principal project stakeholder (PPS) and the management of the principal project stakeholder (MPPS), as a multi-stakeholder. Current literature on the management of project stakeholders has focused on the implementation phase which involves the private sector while the public as the principal stakeholders remain marginalised. This paper focuses on the latter aspect and takes a critical look at the process of multi-stakeholder consultation and management in a PPP project environment. The paper advocates for a paradigm shift in PPP stakeholder management and provides a conceptual model for appropriate stakeholder management in PPP projects