Policy Guidelines for Managing Unsolicited Proposals in Infrastructure Projects

The four-module course provides an overview of the World Bank Group’s Policy Guidelines on Unsolicited Proposals in Infrastructure Projects.

When it comes to infrastructure projects, “unsolicited proposals” (USPs) represent an alternative to the traditional project initiation method. In USPs the private sector rather than the public sector takes the lead role in identifying and developing a project. Many public authorities resort to USPs motivated by the perspective of overcoming their lack of capacity to identify and develop projects. However, experience shows that many projects that originate as USPs experience challenges. They often divert public resources away from the government’s strategic plans, provide poor value for money, and lead to patronage and lack of transparency, particularly in developing countries.

To ensure that governments can mobilize the strengths of the private sector while protecting the public interest, USPs, when accepted, should be managed and used with caution. To help with this, the World Bank has comprehensively reviewed the various methods for managing and responding to USPs and put together a consolidated set of literature on this topic.

This course provides an overview of this work. It is built on three documents which include:

Main Findings and Recommendations, or the summary document;
Policy Guidelines for Managing Unsolicited Proposals in Infrastructure Projects, which provides key policy decisions and considerations for the USP Policy; and
Review of Experiences with USPs, an in depth review of global best practices with USP policies and projects, the findings of which informed the development and considerations of the Guidelines.

Target Audience

The target audience for this course includes government policy makers, international development practitioners and anyone with an interest in public-private partnerships and unsolicited proposals.

Learning Objectives

Understand unsolicited proposals (USPs) and their unique characteristics
Describe key policy considerations and guiding principles to consider when developing a policy to manage USPs
Understand the components required to build a USP policy
Gain familiarity with key tools and resources to help develop a USP policy