Infrastructure is a pre-requisite for advances across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including for reducing poverty, promoting economic growth, addressing inequality and ensuring environmental sustainability. Infrastructure is addressed directly through SDG 9, which commits the international community to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Moreover, “investments in sustainable infrastructure are recognized as a major cross-cutting driver that can contribute to achieving all the SDGs”, as stated by Under-Secretary-General for UN DESA, Wu Hongbo, at the 2015 Global Forum on Development. Resilient infrastructure is essential for ensuring sustainable development for all. “If we are to achieve our goals, and leave no one behind, we must address large infrastructure gaps in developing countries,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the inaugural Global Infrastructure Forum in April 2016.
“Developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable, need international support to bridge existing infrastructure gaps,” emphasized Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the Global Infrastructure Forum. Infrastructure gaps pose major challenges to the implementation of the SDGs. The financing gap for infrastructure in developing countries, for example, is estimated to be 1 to 1.5 trillion dollars annually. Through the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), the international community has committed to support resilient, sustainable infrastructure and to provide a comprehensive framework for mobilising the means to finance it.
Infrastructure that enables countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change is needed to support the Paris Climate Change Agreement. New and resilient infrastructure is also needed to support sustainable urbanization, as the number of people living in cities in emerging economies is expected to double by 2030. Resilient infrastructure is needed, moreover, to cope with the increasing incidence and magnitude of natural disasters.
In recent years there have been several new global, regional and national initiatives aimed at increasing investment in infrastructure. In Africa, for example, infrastructure is a priority element for realizing the vision of Africa’s Agenda 2063. At the global level, the international community committed to support the realisation of resilient, sustainable infrastructure through the AAAA, and created a new Global Infrastructure Forum—which held its inaugural meeting in April—to facilitate access to financing and technical expertise.
The global discussion on infrastructure will continue on 21 July 2016 at UN Headquarters as part of ECOSOC’s 2016 thematic discussion on “Infrastructure for sustainable development for all”. The thematic discussion, part of ECOSOC’s High-level Segment, will engage a broad range of voices in a global dialogue on infrastructure for sustainable development that is inclusive and leaves no one behind. It will offer policy recommendations and inform the Inter-agency Task Force report on Financing for Development, as well as the 2017 Global Infrastructure Forum. For more information: UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)