Sustainable infrastructure
Report presents recommendations to strengthen sustainability of New Development Bank projects
By 2030, the shortage of funding for investments in infrastructure around the world is estimated at US$90 trillion. As a result of this situation, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India China, and South Africa) decided in 2015 to create their own financial institution, called the NDB (New Development Bank). In the report “Building infrastructure for 21st century sustainable development: lessons and opportunities for the NDB”, civil society organizations present guidelines for implementing the bank’s strategy.
Produced by Conectas and by the Center for African, Latin American and Caribbean Studies of the School of International Affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University (India), in partnership with Fudan University (China), the report offers a working definition of sustainable infrastructure, presents principles to guide the NDB in the design and implementation of sustainable projects and, finally, develops a model to assist in the development of sustainability criteria for infrastructure projects financed by the NDB.
“The idea is for the report to serve as the starting point for the future definition of criteria for assessing the sustainability of the NDB’s projects, considering the implementation of the Strategy for 2017-2021 and beyond. We worked in collaboration with partners precisely to give the proposals a pluralistic nature, since the NDB will operate in very distinct countries, each with its own particular characteristics. The result shows that the joint effort by civil society and universities is a powerful way of developing knowledge and practical tools to influence the course of the new institution towards a development that assures and promotes rights,” explained Caio Borges, coordinator of Business and Human Rights at Conectas.
The report also recommends the creation of special credit lines to encourage investments in social infrastructure, based on the premise that the most sustainable projects would receive more funds and better financing conditions. Another suggestion concerns a hiring policy for the bank’s staff. The organizations defend that gender equality should be a guiding criterion for all the bank’s operations and that, internally, women are hired for executive positions.
The recommendations are intended to guide the first five years of the preparation of the NDB’s strategy with the innovative proposal to look at development from a new perspective. “We believe that the recommendations presented in the report will make a significant contribution to help the NDB start its activities strictly following criteria and standards that challenge the rationale of investment at any cost. We propose that the bank should operate from a transformative perspective, not limiting its work to the mitigation of environmental and social impacts, but that it creates long-term solutions for the communities surrounding the projects and for the countries,” concluded Caio Borges.
