Every Public-Private Partnership (PPP) raises the same unavoidable issue: risk.

Not every risk is created equal. A design risk isn’t the same as a financing risk. Operational risks look very different from construction risks. Yet, the success or failure of a PPP often comes down to one thing: whether risks have been placed in the right hands.

Misalignment is costly. When risks are pushed onto a party that lacks the capacity—or the incentive—to manage them, projects stall. Contracts turn into battlegrounds. Disputes eat away at the very outcomes the partnership was meant to deliver.

That leads to three difficult but necessary questions:

1. What are the true risks in this project (not just the ones on paper)?
2. Who has the greatest ability—and motivation—to manage each of them?
3. How do we lock that logic into the financial model and the contract, so the structure holds when pressure mounts?

When it works, risk allocation can transform a PPP from fragile to bankable. But when it doesn’t, even the most promising deal can unravel.

So here’s the challenge and the questions we face:

In your view, which risks must always sit with the public sector, and which should never sit there?
Where do you see the most common mistakes being made in PPP risk allocation?

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