Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has called for a new generation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Africa centred explicitly on human capital development.

“PPPs offer a pathway to bridge financing gaps, accelerate service delivery, enhance quality and drive innovation in ways that neither sector can achieve alone. But let me be clear. I am not speaking about traditional PPPs focused solely on infrastructure or extractive industries,” she said on November 20 at The European House – Ambrosetti (TEHA) CEO dialogue on Southern Africa, in Johannesburg.

She explained that, in her view, the rationale for PPPs in child health, education and nutrition rested on several key pillars.

First, she highlighted efficiency and innovation, noting that, in education, well-structured and properly regulated partnerships have been shown to reduce absenteeism, improve learning outcomes and increase cost-effectiveness.

Second, she emphasised the importance of risk-sharing, stating that successful partnerships allocated risks to the partner best equipped to manage them.

Third, she pointed out that accelerated delivery was essential, as traditional procurement processes could take years.

Chikunga added that, when implemented effectively, PPPs had the potential to significantly shorten timelines, allowing schools to be built, clinics to become operational and essential services to reach children who could not afford to wait.

She stressed that such partnerships should be designed to incorporate the latest technologies, modern management practices and specialised expertise to strengthen public systems over the long term.

“However, PPPs are not without risk. When done poorly, they can exacerbate inequality, prioritise profit over social outcomes and leave governments locked into unfavourable contracts for decades. The international evidence on PPPs is mixed precisely because design and governance matter enormously,” Chikunga noted.

She stated that certain principles needed to guide the partnership approach if investment in future generations was to be successful.

She emphasised that equity must be non-negotiable, with any partnership in health, education or nutrition explicitly prioritising the most marginalised children, including those in rural areas, children living with disabilities, girls at risk of dropping out and children from poor households. She insisted that PPPs should not act as gatekeepers, serving only those who could afford services.

She added that quality should not be compromised. Sustainability, she explained, must guide the design of partnerships, which should build capacity within public systems rather than replace them, aiming to create catalytic partnerships that strengthen national capacity.

Chikunga also highlighted that transparency and accountability were essential, noting that partnership contracts needed to be publicly available and with performance metrics clearly defined and independently monitored.

Finally, she underlined that local context must shape solutions, as one-size-fits-all models imported from other contexts rarely succeeded, and partnerships must be designed with a deep understanding of local realities, cultural contexts and community needs.

“I am calling on our chief executives and captains of industry to partner with government in transformative ways. Investing in the first 1 000 days yields the highest return, yet early childhood development remains chronically underfunded across Africa. We need partnerships that expand access to quality childcare, deliver integrated nutrition and health services, and support parents as children’s first teachers,” she said.

Chikunga said the skills gap was the area where private-sector leadership was most urgent.

“You know better than anyone what competencies your industries require. You experience first-hand the mismatch between what our education system produces and what the labour market demands.

“We are calling on industry leaders to directly co-design curricula with technical colleges and vocational training centres, ensuring that what we teach aligns with what you need. We are calling on manufacturing companies to establish apprenticeship programmes that provide young people with practical experience while building your future workforce. We are also calling on technology firms to partner in coding academies, digital skills boot camps and innovation hubs that prepare youth for the digital economy,” she said.

Chikunga said government wanted partnerships that strengthened primary healthcare, expanded access to essential medicines and which leveraged technology to overcome geographic barriers.

“None of these partnerships can achieve their potential without digital infrastructure. The digital divide translates directly into educational inequality. Children without Internet access are cut off from learning.”

“Therefore, we also need content platforms and software companies to make educational resources freely available or deeply discounted for African learners, and to invest in developing local content in African languages that reflects our cultures and contexts,” Chikunga said.

She said all of this would require a fundamental rethinking of financing products.

“Traditional PPP structures may not be optimal for social-sector investment. We need innovative financing mechanisms that bridge the gap between social impact and financial viability,” she said.

Chikunga, however, acknowledged the importance of a stable policy environment for such partnerships to work.

“We cannot simply call on the private sector to invest and then create regulatory uncertainty, bureaucratic obstacles or policy inconsistency that undermine those investments. Government must also be a reliable partner, honouring commitments, paying agreed-upon subsidies on time and providing policy stability that makes long-term investment viable,” Chikunga acknowledged.

She said government was working to strengthen its PPP frameworks, specifically for social-sector investment.

“We are developing outcomes-based financing mechanisms, piloting new partnership models and building capacity within national and provincial departments to effectively engage private partners,” Chikunga said.