In Africa. many now seem to agree that developing infrastructure is critical for reducing poverty and promoting sustained economic growth, that the private sector has an essential contribution to make in this effort, and that while expanding the private sector's participation in infrastructure is challenging under any circumstances, it is more difficult in Africa than anywhere else. This new view has led to a surge in demand for assistance from the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), and PPIAF is responding through a strategy combining its traditional upstream work with a greater focus on innovative new approaches to private participation in infrastructure.