Annex 1: Terms of Reference for Assessment of the Link between Infrastructure and Sustainable Development
The aim of this project is to determine, at an aggregate and regional level, the nature and magnitude of the positive and negative links between infrastructure and the various components of sustainable development: social, economic, environmental and cultural.
Issues that this project will consider are as follows:
- Where trade-offs between the components of sustainable development arise and how complementarities may be achieved. Existing work on sustainable development, including how sustainable development objectives should be reflected in policy settings, will be drawn on.
- Particular infrastructure sectors contribute to sustainable development in different ways depending on physical characteristics and the phase of sustainable development that the economy is in. Such differences and the implications for measuring infrastructure quality in each sector will be discussed.
- Determination of how infrastructure sectors combine to achieve sustainable development objectives as well as how objectives are achieved within each sector.
- The empirical literature on the impact of infrastructure bottlenecks and excess supply on sustainable development and the relationship between infrastructure and sustainable development will be considered.
- The assessment may also facilitate the ongoing development of indicators and benchmarks that can be used to determine the quality of current infrastructure and policy settings over time. A statement summarising what sustainable development means in an infrastructure context that focuses further work in this area is expected.
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