CDDRL’s Leadership Academy for Development and the International Finance Corporation Bring Senior Infrastructure Leaders to Stanford
CDDRL’s Leadership Academy for Development and the International Finance Corporation Bring Senior Infrastructure Leaders to Stanford
Senior IFC leaders and government officials came together for five days of practical learning focused on the decisions that shape public-private infrastructure projects.
In Brief
- CDDRL's Leadership Academy for Development (LAD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) hosted senior infrastructure leaders and officials at Stanford, August 24–28, 2026, for training on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).
- Stanford scholars Francis Fukuyama and Michael Bennon led sessions applying research to real-world infrastructure finance and governance decisions.
- The cohort joins LAD's global network of nearly 2,700 alumni, extending the program's reach across 116 countries.
Senior leaders from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and government officials gathered at Stanford University from August 24 to 28, 2026, for the IFC-Stanford Leadership Academy for Development Senior Level Training on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and Public Policy for Infrastructure. Infrastructure is a governance outcome that can bolster the legitimacy of new democracies, contribute to economic growth, and provide citizens with public goods. The five-day program was jointly organized by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Leadership Academy for Development (LAD) at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).
Drawing on nearly two decades of work with international partner organizations, LAD worked with IFC to tailor lectures and case studies to the program's learning objectives. Participants examined PPP structuring and procurement, project finance, stakeholder engagement, regulatory and political risk, project assessment and safeguards, public institution reform, and bilateral and multilateral development finance.
The cohort was taught by Stanford scholars Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and professor by courtesy of political science, and Michael Bennon. Prof. Fukuyama opened the first session with his Problem-Solving Framework, a method for identifying a policy problem, mapping stakeholder interests and relationships, and moving from analysis to implementation.
Bennon is a research scholar at CDDRL and program manager of its Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative. He also teaches Global Project Finance to Stanford graduate students. He led sessions on public-private partnerships, infrastructure regulation, project assessment and safeguards, corruption, and energy-sector reform, linking research on infrastructure governance and finance to the choices practitioners face when developing and overseeing projects.
Participants applied these concepts to real-world infrastructure cases from Indonesia, Uganda, Canada, Brazil, Uzbekistan, and Ecuador, taking the roles of public officials and investors to work through contested procurements, project turnarounds, public pushback, and corruption. Rather than a single correct answer, each case asked participants to weigh political constraints, institutional capacity, and the competing interests of governments, financiers, private partners, and local communities.
Group work is a hallmark of LAD training. Each day, teams set aside time to work through a real-world PPP or infrastructure problem brought by program participants, using the week's lessons to build an implementation plan. Teams presented their recommendations to faculty and peers on the final day.
Participants said they expect to apply what they learned through the LAD program to their everyday work, and many pointed to the range of experience in the room as a resource in itself. One participant described the week as providing both practical frameworks and a network of professionals facing similar challenges. Another, reflecting on two decades in infrastructure finance, said the course served as a reminder of how much there is still left to learn.
The IFC-Stanford cohort now joins LAD's global community of nearly 2,700 alumni from 116 countries. Across 88 workshops organized with 31 institutional partners, LAD has built a network of government officials, international development specialists, and private-sector leaders who continue to learn from one another as they design policy and carry out reforms. That network gives this cohort a source of experience and advice as they apply the week's lessons to infrastructure decisions in their own institutions and countries.
