Australian aid programs delivered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been growing larger and more complex. Many projects nowadays involve long-term investments totaling tens of millions of dollars, and they demand private sector partnerships capable of handling complicated deliverables.
Palladium is one of DFAT’s major partners in delivering large-scale aid programs and 3i: Investing in Infrastructure is one of the biggest aid programs that Palladium is currently managing within Cambodia. The program, worth almost 50 million Australian dollars ($37.8 million), will operate until 2020 with the aim of increasing access to utilities and infrastructure and creating new trade opportunities.
3i is not the first DFAT program to engage the private sector, but it is the first to engage it on a large-scale infrastructure program. But how does such a large-scale and long-term program operate to achieve its goals? Devex spoke with key personnel in Canberra and on the ground in Cambodia for their insights.