Recently, public–private partnerships (PPPs) have attracted renewed attention as a valuable tool to close the gap between public services and social needs. In fact, the United Nations (UN) proposed collaboration across multiple stakeholders as one of the key goals for securing global sustainable development. Yet, PPPs remain a controversial proposition for many due to, among other factors, the complexity and limitation of current systems to assess their impact beyond the notion of value for money. This study offers a conceptual model (EASIER) that accounts for six dimensions that are relevant for social, environmental, and economic progress. We also propose a questionnaire to assess the impact of PPPs on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and apply it to a PPP contract as an illustration. We advocate the use of EASIER as an initial evaluation model due to its simplicity and its holistic perspective.

The Ecuadorian healthcare system includes both the public and private sectors. The public sector accounts for the majority of the insured population, with 66% covered by the year 2014, according to the Survey of Life Conditions. Private insurance accounts for just 6%. The institutions belonging to the public healthcare sector are:1. The Public Ministry of Health (MSP) and the Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion (MIES), which provide health services to the whole population, including those that do not have any type of health insurance coverage.2. The social security institutions which include the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), the Social Security Institute of the Armed Forces (ISSFA) and the Social Security Institute of the National Police (ISSPOL). The IESS provides medical services to all social security contributors, while the other two institutions provide medical services to the army and national police corps, respectively.Ecuador is a country that has suffered from a continuous process of healthcare deterioration that began in the 1990s with a period of democratic instability that hindered the performance of healthcare through reductions in the budget for healthcare provision, worsening infrastructure due to lack of investment, low quality of healthcare services and a deficient institutional structure (Granda and Jimenez, 2019).