Collaborating to Better Meet Global Infrastructure Needs

There’s More To Be Done

The USCIB Foundation Business Partner Roundtable Series
The USCIB Foundation developed the Business Partner Roundtables (BPR) to focus on critical global topics to support multisector engagement. These invitation-only virtual discussions encourage business, public and academic leaders to consider approaches to multisector engagement on key global issues. The sessions aim to elicit practical recommendations, resulting in a Topline Action Report.

Business Partner Roundtables: Infrastructure
One session was held in 2023, in partnership with The Wilson Center Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, assembling a distinguished group of global corporate, government, NGOs, and academic leaders. The objective of the discussion was to explore how we can achieve Sustainable Development Goal 9 related to building resilient infrastructure.

Session Outcomes
The discussion observed how important infrastructure investment was to the achievement of many other SDGs, including clean water, quality healthcare, affordable energy, and sustainable cities. The session identified seven key imperatives and illustrated examples of successful infrastructure impact.

Key Imperatives

• Imperative #1: Team Effort Required  Closing the infrastructure gap requires all parties to step up
• Imperative #2: Choose Right Infrastructure  Vital to success in closing the infrastructure investment gap is choosing the right projects
• Imperative #3: Data Essential to Choosing Right  To facilitate choosing the right projects, countries would benefit greatly from having more relevant data
• Imperative #4: Bolster Soft Infrastructure  Soft infrastructure within a country, particularly in skill development, is also key
• Imperative #5: Strengthen Institutional Infrastructure  Improved institutional infrastructure supporting development is also needed
• Imperative #6: Focus on Operations, Implementation and On the Ground Results  Progress will not be achieved without the super important work of operations
• Imperative #7: Collaboration is Challenging but Vital  Making partnerships work is hard and efforts sometimes don’t pan out

Delivering Impact Infrastructure

Community engagement through local participation and skill development is the foundation to a resilient ecosystem:

• Select the right infrastructure projects
• Plan for the right infrastructure
• Upfront planning delivers better results