Integrity risks in water infrastructure: The importance of planning and early decision-making processes

May 25, 2023 | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Auditorium

Description

Water is a key natural resource with significant impacts on people and economies. Delivering quality water infrastructure is essential to meet the targets for Sustainable Development Goal 6 and ensuring adequate provision for all. A lack of good governance in the selection and planning of water projects can drive priorities away from social needs. In response to this challenge, CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, the Water Integrity Network and the Inter-American Development Bank have partnered to develop a set of indicators and associated data points to help strengthen transparency, accountability and integrity in the sector. Our research goes deep into the dynamics of decision-making, demonstrating the value of having objective metrics to identify unusual patterns in the process of allocating water investment and to enable practical improvements. This session will outline the approach and methodology, share the findings arising from the research and consider the potential impact of this approach if it were scaled-up.