PPP and DPI is not the best idea since sliced bread - thoughts after ID4Africa 2026

Problem is the asymmetric Power  in the Partnernship between the Private and the Public.

Private power >> public power - so it is never an equal  partnership for a number of reasons.

Skills in writing RFP, judging bids, (i.e. contract law, and technology expertise) are way lower on public side than private. So when it comes to getting the right constrains on bidders, things will be in the hands of the (often) unscrupulous companies. Even corporate private organisations with the best of intions are required (legally) to maximise shareholder value, where as governments act (hopelly) on behalf of maximising  citizenship welfare. In many scenarious, these are incompatible goals

The Tony Blair PM era of UK politics was in many regards succesful at improving healthcare and education, but part of that did employ PPPs - the long term legacy of that is really quite bad.

Then there's only one P (private) and one P (piblic) so you are in a monopolistic (monogamy) relationship.

Note state team pay << private pay, so you will have a steady flow through that revolving door.Once people gain any level of confidence and competence, combined with their inside knowledge, they become immensely valuable to the "other side".

c.f. BBC a/v people train -> sky for 2.5x salary..

or uni or gov (look at internet in 1992 when NSFnet shut down) everyone went to commercial ISP...

Governments change every n (5?) years, so companies can just outlive public "corporate" memory...

Also note a few other factors in the mix

Open source allows human mobility 

propiteary doesnt easily, so has built in anti-transer.

Part solutions

1/ have polyamorous PPPs (i.e. 3-6 different private partners

2/ have transfer fees for people moving from Public to Private

3/  have heft penalties for divorce