Public-private partnerships (PPPs) offer possible solutions for governments seeking to achieve better value for money and fund the investments needed to provide infrastructure and manage public services. Water-sector projects demand extensive, up-front and sunk investments, and inefficiency levels are often significant. This study conducted a systematic review of previous research on water sector PPP projects. The research design is innovative in that it relied on a hybrid methodology combining systematic quantitative, semantic network and narrative analyses. The literature review protocol applied found 122 relevant studies published in top journals. Five key topics within water-related PPP studies were identified: risk management, PPP contractual arrangements, financing and tariffs, infrastructure, and governance. The most important topic is risk management, within which individual scholars’ contributions were tracked. However, a consensus has not been reached about the best risk matrix for improving PPP contracts in the water sector.

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Public-private partnership,Systematic literature review,Water sector

• Ciências da Terra e do Ambiente - Ciências Naturais
• Engenharia do Ambiente - Engenharia e Tecnologia
• Psicologia - Ciências Sociais
• Economia e Gestão - Ciências Sociais
• Sociologia - Ciências Sociais
• Direito - Ciências Sociais
• Geografia Económica e Social - Ciências Sociais