Lack of proper infrastructure planning is extremely costly; it hurts efforts for COVID-19 recovery, climate action and the SDGs.
This is the key message of a UN publication, “Managing Infrastructure Assets for Sustainable Development,” by UN/DESA and UNCDF, with contributions from the DDSAH - ECLAC. Infrastructure asset management is about building and maintaining everything from water systems to schools, from roads, rails and airports to hospitals and the energy grid. The new UN Handbook calls on central and local governments around the world to vastly overhaul the way they build and maintain infrastructure in order to reduce waste and costs, free up precious resources, improve vital public services and ensure a sustainable future.
The Handbook equips local and national governments with practical tools to improve infrastructure asset management, plus guidance on how to adapt these tools to the socio-economic and environmental challenges of our time.
It addresses a set of key questions:
The Handbook draws on the diverse experiences of local governments using a range of field-tested UN asset management tools. It shares contributions by field experts from the UN system, including ECLAC multilateral and regional development banks, local government associations, universities and think tanks around the world. To disseminate the Handbook, UN/DESA, UNCDF and UNOPS are now convening a series of regional interactive online solutions dialogues (OSD), with a strong focus on asset management basics, data and resilience to crises. The dialogues support developing countries in their ongoing response to the pandemic and its economic and social ramifications. The first round of workshops has already attracted over 800 participants with 300 local and central governments representatives from Latin America and the Caribbean region. To sign up for future workshops please visit www.un-assetmanagementworkshops.org
