Out with the vague when it comes to tackling critical infrastructure

Infrastructure is critical to a country’s development, but with huge needs and shrinking foreign aid budgets, the moment calls for “forward-looking, strategic” approaches to financing and partnership, Enoh Ebong, president of the Global Development Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at a Devex Impact House event during the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week. Infrastructure allows people to communicate, to move about, and to access energy, food, and water. “It is the underpinning of any strong economy,” she said. “How do we, in this moment of transformation and change, piece together the right coalitions to unlock financing?” And that is the big question of this time: How will the gaps be filled, and what tools can be deployed to do so? It requires the right mix of partners and types of financing. The private sector can’t address everything alone, including regulatory change, but grant financing is also insufficient to address the needs. “We have to get quite specific as to where the gaps are, and then we have to engage” with foundations, pension plans, innovations in countries, and find ways to effectively partner, she said. “We can’t be vague in our articulation of what’s necessary.”