The successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) depends heavily on infrastructure, as according to the OECD more
than 80 percent of the SDGs rely on infrastructure development of some
form. Given the long-term nature of infrastructure, its benefits for
society, and its undeniable impact on the environment, sustainable and
resilient infrastructure systems will be vital in ensuring that
sustainable development, particularly on the resource-intensive African
continent, is able to succeed. Sustainable infrastructure is a means to
mitigate environmental, economic, and social risks, as well as to
increase resource optimisation and benefit creation. However, in order
to turn this potential into reality – through the development of
sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects – the roles of the
private sector, master planning, public procurement, and public-private
partnerships (PPP) are vital.
Sustainable and resilient infrastructure: A backbone for the SDGs
Infrastructure such as telecommunication networks, transportation
systems, water treatment and waste management facilities, hospitals and
schools, are necessary to ensure effective economic and social
development. Humanity strongly depends on the services such types of
infrastructure provide. However, besides the undisputable benefits they
deliver, they also have significant impacts on the environment –
resulting in a loss of biodiversity and a decrease in human well-being.
Including the right sustainability and resilience aspects into the
development and financing of infrastructure projects is becoming
increasingly important, and could turn infrastructure into the backbone
of sustainable development. In light of the following two trends, it has
become even more important to integrate these crucial aspects into
infrastructure planning in Africa.
Firstly, the continent’s population is booming. Secondly, it is
experiencing a huge demographic shift from rural to urban areas. After
Asia, Africa is the world’s second-fastest region in terms of pace of
urbanisation. The total population living in Africa’s urban areas is
expected to rise from 400 million in 2010 to around 1.26 billion in
2050.[1] According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the number of
urban-based Sub-Saharan African households is likely to grow at a rate
of 4.1 percent per year until 2025.[2] This expected growth demonstrates
a need for better urban management, institution building, and a new
paradigm for planning and implementing infrastructure projects.
Today, however, Africa is lacking appropriate and sustainable
infrastructure solutions to meet these growing challenges. For example,
80 percent of Africa’s agriculture still relies on rainwater rather than
irrigation networks. Electricity production plants, as well as health
and educational services, are also insufficient. Not only does this
rapid development threaten the fulfilment of African people’s most basic
needs today, it also indirectly affects the ability of future
generations to meet theirs. Sustainable and resilient infrastructure has
tremendous potential to help achieve the SDGs and other
sustainability-related targets set by international agreements, such as
keeping the global temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees
Celsius by the end of this century. In particular, through better roads,
ports, and other transport means, sustainable and resilient
infrastructure can improve the connectivity of goods, services, and
people, thus strengthening African economies, supporting their
integration into global trade and international value chains, creating
more jobs, and offering better income possibilities for their growing
population.
A new element to consider: Nature-based solutions
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognised as
complementary solutions that provide infrastructure projects with
numerous benefits and increase their levels of sustainability and
resilience. These solutions are especially important for Africa as they
can help tackle many of its current challenges. NBS are natural systems –
like wetlands, forests, or mangroves – that can substitute for
conventional man-made infrastructure, such as dams and water treatment
plants, and are integral to the health of ecosystems and human
well-being. There is a strong business case for investing in NBS, as
they can reduce construction and maintenance costs, improve operation
costs, and generate financial gains.[3] Furthermore, in many cases, NBS
can generate more co-benefits and function longer than conventional,
man-made infrastructure.
These qualities of NBS are especially interesting in the context of
Africa’s future development trajectory. For example, NBS can contribute
significantly to soil restoration, green space rehabilitation, the
development of food gardens, and disease prevention. They also reduce
the occurrence of disasters due to their ability to strengthen soil,
control floods, and produce microclimates in cities. Furthermore, they
can help purify water supplies and support the retention capacity of
soil.
Using new tools to integrate sustainability-related aspects into planning
How can the resilience and sustainability aspects of infrastructure
projects be demonstrated to city planners, project developers,
investors, and decision makers? Are there currently any tools that could
look at an infrastructure project and assess its qualities, risks, and
benefits for infrastructure stakeholders?
Standardised approaches can contribute to benchmarking, increase the
comparability of infrastructure projects between countries and sectors,
and create a common language between the main stakeholders. Therefore,
credible standards are essential. GIB, together with the French
investment bank Natixis, has been working with a wide range of
stakeholders across regions and sectors to produce a standard that can
achieve these objectives. The Standard for Sustainable and Resilient
Infrastructure (SuRe®) was launched at COP21 in Paris in December 2015,
and provides a basis upon which infrastructure projects can be certified
as sustainable and resilient. It integrates the IFC performance
indicators and relevant international conventions – such as the Sendai
Framework for Disaster and Risk Reduction, the Convention on Biological
Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work –
into its performance assessments. GIB has also included nature-based
solutions in this standard, which ensures that it provides benefits
beyond the immediate scope of the SDGs. The SuRe® Standard creates a
common understanding between the public sector, project developers, and
the financial sector. In order to channel larger financial flows from
institutional investors towards sustainable and resilient
infrastructure, complementary tools focussing on the default risk
assessments of debt financing and underwriting are also needed.
Therefore, GIB is also working with market players to develop these
complementary tools.
How can these and similar tools help vulnerable African cities handle
and overcome the challenges they are facing? First, they facilitate
appropriate procurement criteria, enable the comparison of
infrastructure projects, and help the project selection process. Second,
they ensure that environmental, social, and governance criteria are
covered, thus increasing the quality of infrastructure, improving risk
management, and creating benefits. Third, they prepare projects for the
scrutiny of potential financiers, who increasingly focus on such
criteria when assessing projects. In this regard, the involvement of
private investors helps such projects to access private finance.
The risk mitigation and benefit creation potential of sustainable infrastructure
Considering the social, economic, and environmental elements of an
infrastructure project helps mitigate risks, and is particularly
cost-effective when done at the beginning of the development process. An
illustrative example is the construction of a renewable energy water
dam that creates risks for the local biodiversity and ecosystem as well
as the habitat of indigenous people. Such a project could endanger the
fish population and potentially lead to the displacement of the local
indigenous population. Mitigation measures would include stakeholder
engagement: preparing, informing, and negotiating with the indigenous
communities before such displacement decisions take place, and better
assessing the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, resulting in the
possible redesign of the project in question.
Embedding the aspects of sustainability and resilience into
infrastructure projects can provide benefits such as lower energy,
repair, and maintenance costs, as well as proactive environmental
approaches. This results in better environmental and biodiversity
protection, including through reduced CO2 emissions. Infrastructure
development and upgrade present significant opportunities in relation to
climate change adaptation and mitigation, since such projects are
usually built to last for decades and influence the livelihoods,
lifestyles, and consumption behaviour of many people every day. Houses
built according to energy efficiency standards, wind farms that replace
coal-fired power plants, innovative water and waste treatment plants, as
well as public transport systems, can save large amounts of greenhouse
gas emissions throughout their life cycles, including by increasing the
share of renewable energy consumption and protecting carbon sinks.
Using innovative tools – such as the SuRe® Standard – to assess the
sustainability and resilience of infrastructure projects can generate
significant benefits for the various stakeholders involved: it helps
financiers to identify sustainable investment opportunities
(particularly for unlisted infrastructure) and compare the performance
of infrastructure projects across sectors with regard to environmental,
social, and governance criteria; it also supports project developers in
identifying how to use project resources efficiently (financial and
natural) and communicate the benefits clearly, which can in turn make
the relevant project more acceptable to the public and attract
additional financial resources from the private sector; and it allows
the public sector to benefit from the increased quality of
infrastructure, greater resilience, and the more efficient use of
limited public resources, while also encouraging the establishment of
appropriate procurement criteria.
The crucial role of the public sector
Given the key role of infrastructure design and implementation in the
whole sustainable development process, the public sector will play a
crucial role in the successful integration of sustainability and
resilience elements into projects, in particular regarding the adoption
of appropriate public procurement systems and the design of
public-private partnership (PPP) models. Such action should be based on
well-designed master plans, laying the foundation for the creation of
safe, secure, and healthy urban environments with access to basic
services for all. In the majority of African countries, public
procurement needs to be improved in order to implement innovative
infrastructure solutions.
In Africa, there is growing pressure on government budgets,
insufficient investments due to scarce financial resources, and a lack
of capacity within the infrastructure sector. Therefore, PPPs have
emerged in the African market as a solution to overcome local
challenges. In general, PPPs allow public and private know-how to be
combined in order to enhance the quality of services, increase resource
efficiency, improve risk allocation and – due to the skills and
effectiveness of the private sector – contribute to reducing the whole
life cost of a project compared to those developed via standard public
procurement. In addition, such collaboration will allow projects to
access innovation and additional technical know-how, both of which are
key inputs. Recognising the great potential of PPPs, GIB has teamed up
with C.R.E.A.M. Europe to develop the ImPPPact initiative, which aims at
stimulating innovative approaches and resource efficiency with regards
to infrastructure projects. Such initiatives have the potential to
foster the implementation of the SDGs through PPP infrastructure
projects.
Conclusion
The African continent is urbanising rapidly and must provide its
growing population with the necessary goods and services. Built
infrastructure, although needed, is having a detrimental effect on the
environment and human well-being. In this context, it is critical to
ensure that infrastructure development becomes a driver to achieve the
SDGs and other targets set by international agreements. This will in
turn boost economic development, protect the environment, and provide
African societies with a variety of social benefits.
Thanks to the fact that sustainability and resilience elements can
contribute to the mitigation of risks and even increase the benefits
associated with infrastructure projects, sustainability and resilience
thinking should be considered not as an additional cost, but rather as a
return-providing investment. Nature-based solutions can contribute to
lower cost solutions and enhance the benefit creation potential and
resilience of infrastructure. Strengthening the ties between the public
and the private sector (PPPs), efficient public procurement systems, and
well-designed city master plans are all key ingredients to implementing
sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects. The public sector,
construction companies, and financial intermediaries need to apply more
innovative tools. Together with renowned business players, GIB has
started to provide such market-oriented tools and services. Halting the
current tempo of urbanisation is not an option. However, introducing
sustainability and resilience aspects into infrastructure projects can
shift us onto a more sustainable path.
Author: Hans-Peter Egler, CEO, Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB).
Sumber:http://www.ictsd.org