UK-based consultancy Mott MacDonald, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the UK Department of International Trade on Wednesday launched the Enabling Better Infrastructure (EBI) global policy programme.

Various launch events were held concurrently across the world to launch the programme, which includes a report that sets out high-level principles for governments to consider when planning infrastructure programmes and during early-stage project preparation.

Oxford Economics estimates that the world will need to invest $94-trillion in infrastructure up to 2040. This is 19% higher than what will be delivered under current trends.

ICE aims to ensure that societies get the infrastructure they need and can trust it will be delivered, using the knowledge and collective action of global chartered membership.

ICE fellow and EBI steering group chairperson Michael Bear comments that, if the world wants to realise the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it will need better infrastructure.

“The SDGs have created a blueprint for a world in which we protect our planet’s ecosystems while making sure that people can flourish. There can be no sustainable development without connectivity, clean water, sanitation, low-carbon energy and a host of other services, which are all underpinned by infrastructure.”

However, he notes that the challenge to realise ambitious infrastructure investment programmes in countries globally has been how to transform a vision into a plan that is both deliverable and achieves the expected benefits.

Bear explains that, across the world, there are common issues being faced by decision-makers: the need to address climate change and its effects, the need to manage rapid urbanisation and demographic shifts, and the need to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by digitisation and new technology to boost economies.

Achieving these goals will increasingly require new and repurposed infrastructure.

It will be the first time for many governments to address these issues in a strategic way.

The EBI programme seeks to create an online resource hub that shows the different approaches that have been taken to infrastructure planning and delivery, instead of leaving it up to governments to reinvent the wheel.

“No one country has the monopoly on good ideas, so bringing together examples and learnings from across the world, we hope to increase the likelihood of decision-makers getting it right the first time,” Bear states.

EBI COMPONENTS

EBI representatives have conducted interviews with practitioners from around the world and drew insights together in a report.

Bear says the report will be useful to government officials, financial institutions, private infrastructure developers and infrastructure consultants and contractors.

It draws on international best practice to describe three stages of national infrastructure planning, including establishing a national vision for infrastructure, conducting a national infrastructure needs assessment and creating a national infrastructure strategy.

The report further provides insight and advice on six key aspects of the enabling environment for national infrastructure planning. These aspects are the institutional framework, fiscal capacity and private finance, data to support decision-making, stakeholder buy-in and consultation, legal and regulatory frameworks and human capacity and capability requirements.

To complement the insights in the report, ICE has created a resource hub to signpost useful resources from around the world. The institute will continue to share new insights and case studies from members that participate in the EBI programme.

“The resource hub and wider programme will be continually reviewed and developed to ensure decision-makers have ongoing support. The hub will be developed so that if the resources prompt questions, a mechanism for providing answers will be in place,” Bear explains.

The wider programme will include the hosting of 'insight development events' across the world, which will ensure the collation of case studies around the 12 guiding principles within the EBI report continues.

EBI’s 12 guiding principles start off with identifying strategic objectives. Bear says governments need to start with a clear view of what economic, social and environmental effects they want to achieve for their country.

“A national vision must be truly national. Wide and inclusive stakeholder engagement will be needed to establish buy-in to a long-term view of the nation’s needs.

“A good vision homes in on the specifics of a country’s situation. We found, for example, that South Africa is dealing with the legacy of apartheid, oil-rich States are focusing on diversifying their economies and the Netherlands needs to manage intense competition for land use.

“Objectives also change over time. Over the last half-century, Singapore and Hong Kong have moved from focusing on basic services and taking people out of poverty to enhancing the quality of the urban environment and environmental sustainability,” Bear points out.

He concludes that the EBI programme does not provide a perfect off-the-shelf model that all countries should try to follow, but rather provides the backbone of a strategic infrastructure planning process that can help to achieve national goals.