Hiring and Managing Advisors

Infrastructure reforms are complex and governments will seldom have all necessary skills and expertise to implement them. External advisors can make a positive contribution to the process as they bring international experience, an insight into the requirements of the private sector, and added guarantee of transparency and legitimacy to external parties, including customers, donors and operators.

But advisors are costly. This toolkit estimates that private participation in infrastructure projects may incur transaction costs between 1 percent and 12 percent of total project costs, which are largely made up of advisors costs. The government must make the best use of those resources by clearly defining the objectives of the project and the terms of reference of advisors up-front, organizing competition in procurement and monitoring outputs.

This toolkit guides governments in hiring and managing advisors, and provides useful insights on how they operate and what they can offer.

Download the toolkit (PDF, 3.2MB).