Quality Infrastructure consultative workshop Paris

A consultative workshop on the Global Infrastructure Hub’s upcoming reference guide on Output Specifications for Quality Infrastructure was held in Paris in partnership with Mott MacDonald on 15 April.

Over 40 delegates from 10 countries attended, including representatives from the EU PPP Unit or Ministry of Economy, in addition to the European Commission, EPEC, EBRD, ADB, SIF SOURCE, PIDG, OECD, Embassy representatives, CSOs and private sector partners.

The Reference Guide’s objective is to operationalise the description of Quality Infrastructure from the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit.

Background

At the Hangzhou Summit G20 leaders adopted a declaration “stressing the importance of quality infrastructure investment, which aims to ensure economic efficiency in view of life-cycle cost, safety, resilience against natural disaster, job creation, capacity building, and transfer of expertise and know-how on mutually agreed terms and conditions, while addressing social and environmental impacts and aligning with economic and development strategies”.

The GI Hub’s Output Specifications for Quality Infrastructure Reference Guide will assist users to assess and incorporate, into a long-term PPP contract, the dimensions of quality infrastructure. The lifecycle approach to infrastructure design is considered a key driver in the achievement of quality outcomes and lifecycle efficiency. The Reference Guidance will include cases studies across the main sectors of infrastructure (energy, transport, water and waste, social infrastructure) from around the world and with a focus on the specific outcomes relating to aspects of quality infrastructure.

Consultative workshop

The workshop was delivered in French and English, with the morning session dedicated to introducing the reference guide, scope of work and methodology. There was lively discussion around what is needed to make a successful PPP project illustrated by the case study of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. The morning session ended with a presentation by the CEO of the Mission Très Haut Débit on the French Broadband program highlighting the alignment of the output specifications of the project with the Quality Infrastructure focus areas. This was followed by a panel with keys stakeholders from the project.

The afternoon focused on two showcase projects which feature in the upcoming Reference Guide, the Denver Colorado highways project and the Gautrain rail project in South Africa with a cross-reference to the Melbourne Metro project in Australia.

The workshop ended with a discussion on lessons learned and feedback on the workshop from attendees.

Thank you to participants for their attendance, active feedback and the support received for the work being undertaken by the GI Hub. 

Next steps

Once feedback is incorporated, a consultative version of the Output Specifications for Quality Infrastructure Reference Guide will be released on the GI Hub website for comment.