The founder of the Academy, prof. Iryna Zapatrina jontly with professora Pedro Neves, Sladjana Sredojević, Vida Abdaly, Yu Namba, Carolina Santana, Joan-Enric Ricart took part in the panel ““Taking PPPs out of the classroom: contribution by academic institutions to capacity building” of the UNECE PPP Forum in Istanbul (May 10, 2024).
The inspirational initiative of strengthening the role of academia and scientists in accelerating the involvement of private business in infrastructure and strengthening such its components as sustainability, resilience and people-orientation were discussed during the panel.
Our main conclusion was that academia can help to accelerate the implementation of PPPs for the SDGs through building trust between public authorities, business, society; as well as by ensuring wider dissemination of knowledge on this topic among all potential participants of this process including media. Everyone should understand what the SDGs and “PPPs for SDGs” are, why they are important for people, on which principles and using which approaches a project can be structured in such a way that the government, business and population are mutually interested in its outcomes. Scientists can and should teach people to talk in SDG language including through developing and promoting educational programs accessible to everyone, broad public discussions on the issue of PPP and SDGs with participation of business and general public, sharing successful experience in implementing PPP projects and working on mistakes done.
