Nature, Scope & Scale of Global Infrastructure Knowledge Gap: A World Economic Forum Perspective
Vangelis, Papakonstantinou, Lead, System Initiative Shaping the Future of Long-term Investing, Infrastructure & Development, World Economic Forum (WEF), Geneva
A well-functioning, modern infrastructure is central to economic development and to quality of life. Infrastructure matters to people and business everywhere. Lack of infrastructure dramatically hampers the growth potential in many developing countries. The infrastructure gap can also be viewed as a “knowledge & skills gap” since infrastructure investment requires a multiplicity of skills to assess, procure, manage and regulate large public projects with long-term contracts. Those skills may not be sufficiently available in a public sector organisation. It is extremely difficult for policymakers to find the right information when this is needed. There is a systemic asymmetry of information to the private and the public sector, leading to delays and resource misallocation in every stage in a project’s lifecycle (planning, tendering, financing, operations, maintenance etc.). Following the Global Financial Crisis, the G20 have consistently supported initiatives that aim to promote investment in strategic infrastructure. The World Economic Forum’s linked its System Initiative on Long-Term Investing, Infrastructure and Development to these global efforts in 2011. It aims to facilitate the private and public sector in closing the $1 trillion annual infrastructure financing shortfall. The World Economic Forum has developed a significant “body of knowledge” (tools & frameworks) that aims to guide decision-makers in infrastructure since 2011 by using the expertise of the private sector. In addition to other initiatives, the newest addition of the Forum is the Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Programme; a collaborative effort between the private sector, the G20 and the support of the French government.
Seminar Resources:
Background Report: “Brazil’s Infrastructure Finance”
