New infrastructure framework ‘gives confidence’ to developers

The EBI programme (32 pages/ 2,616KB), convened by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), brings together independent specialists to support governments across the world in creating a national infrastructure strategy, using the guidance to help prioritise infrastructure projects. The insights aim to help provide clarity on setting up strategic planning processes, allowing countries to gain a sense of how their planning systems compare with others to allow for overall improvement in global strategic infrastructure planning.

The EBI guidance is structured around the 2019 Enabling Better Infrastructure report (32 pages, 2,513 KB). The framework aims to allow governments to create infrastructure strategy which can be used to prioritise projects. The guidance sets out points to be considered by governments to help provide clarity on which projects should be considered most important as when it comes to infrastructure planning. The guidance sets out a three step process to help in the development of infrastructure strategy, showing how other countries have done it, and includes a strategic planning gap assessment tool to help civil servants and other professionals identify where governments should consider upgrading their infrastructure decision-making process.

Infrastructure law expert Ian Laing of Pinsent Masons, who spoke at the ICE launch event in Singapore last week, said: “The product of better strategic infrastructure planning has the opportunity to be profound at a societal level and at the practical level will give greater confidence to developers and investors to allocate resources to a territory or sector. The guidance allows governments to benchmark themselves and provides a clear process and examples of how other areas are doing it.”

Originally launched in 2019, the ICE-convened programme has been updated to reflect the changes in the world in the last five years, with things including the Covid-19 pandemic having a lasting economic impact, as well as the effects of climate change also influencing the update, the ICE noted.

Changes include a simplified eight principles, instead of the original 12 set out the 2019 framework. For example, when planning infrastructure, governments should examine the economic, social, and environmental outcomes of what they want to achieve, basing infrastructure decisions on this to allow for a streamlined approach for specific projects and for wider infrastructure plans countrywide.

It advises using the UN sustainable development goals to determine the societal and environmental benefits of infrastructure plans. The UN goals provide a baseline and can help ensure infrastructure is planned in ways that deliver on these such as inclusivity, gender and equity. The principles also urge governments to consider cross-sectoral needs, taking into account issues such as climate change and population growth when considering what people need now and what they will require in the future.

“I am confident that the guidance provides answers to many of the challenges that governments face in planning strategic infrastructure globally”, Laing added.