Infrastructure Investment Partnerships Leadership Academy: A Training Program for Policymakers

The West Coast Infrastructure Exchange (WCX) is a partnership among California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia that seeks to develop innovative new methods to finance and facilitate development and repair of critical public infrastructure systems. In partnership with WCX Executive Director Chris Taylor, the SIPA Capstone team designed a core curriculum training program for WCX’s “Infrastructure Investment Partnership Leadership Academy” (IIPLA). The curriculum and corresponding two-day training program will build the capacity of public policymakers – elected officials, project managers, finance and budget leads, regulators, and lawyers – to deliver innovative infrastructure delivery solutions utilizing public-private partnerships (PPPs). Additional objectives of the WCX that will be accomplished through the implementation of the IIPLA curriculum are to foster awareness and increase conviction in the public sector’s use of PPPs, share best practices, sustain a network of participants, and help simplify procurement processes.

Specifically, the curriculum recommends seven modules designed to impart IIPLA participants with knowledge around the different types of PPP models and financing arrangements, as well as their added-value when compared to traditional procurement methods. Other modules address critical steps for project origination, design, and management, and ways in which to standardize project execution processes to better “pipeline” available projects. The curriculum concludes with a course devoted to developing regional and project-specific “action plans” to ensure participants are able to translate lessons to home communities. Finally, the curriculum incorporates emphases on political will and stakeholder engagement throughout. The Capstone team also provided a proposed budget, implementation timeline, and recommended readings and instructors for the Academy.