MDB Infrastructure Cooperation Platform: A Common Set of Aligned Sustainable Infrastructure Indicators (SII)
The COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated the urgency to deliver a set of Sustainable Infrastructure Indicators to ensure clear market guidance is provided to governments, banks and investors to direct more investment to sustainable infrastructure projects that support a sustainable global economic recovery. As part of the work underway by the MDB ICP Sustainable Infrastructure Workstream, this report shows that despite numerous existing sustainable infrastructure tools, frameworks, and indicators, none have been jointly developed by all MDBs. The report presents 16 key sustainable infrastructure indicators which, while not an exhaustive list, do provide the common denominators of three mapped sustainable infrastructure frameworks and two initiatives of MDBs. This work does not attempt to standardize internal MDB policies or processes but rather distill the essence of infrastructure sustainability only from the referenced frameworks. It represents a first step towards providing a common language for dialogue around sustainable infrastructure and to ensure consistency across the project cycle. The indicators cover topics including environmental sustainability, climate change and resilience, social inclusion, institutional governance, employment and economic and social return. The report also provides insights into how reaching an aligned set of sustainable infrastructure indicators can mobilize public and private investment and how public and private players can incorporate/monitor them at various stages of the asset lifecycle. Lastly, it discusses the extent to which each indicator aligns with the SDGs.