Building Global Resilience and Promoting Sustainable Development Through Regional and Interregional Infrastructure Connectivity

A/RES/77/282View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 18Sustainable development, published in 2022.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Digital Technology Physical Infrastructure Resilience Sustainable Development Transport Infrastructure

What does this mandate say?

26 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms its unwavering commitment to developing quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all;

Reaffirms the strong political commitment to create an enabling environment at all levels, in order to achieve relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 9, to facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to them;

Recognizes the importance of enhancing connectivity and the need for rebuilding trust in multilateralism and international partnerships for the development of quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure;

Commits to enhancing infrastructure connectivity as a means to build resilience to future crises, acknowledges that this can be achieved, inter alia, through enhanced stability of global supply chains, better interconnectedness of multimodal and interoperable transport systems, investment in digitally enabled infrastructure, and trade facilitation, and encourages the continuation and advancement of regional cooperation in this regard, particularly in enhancing transport, energy, and digital infrastructure connectivity, including through closer cooperation in science, education, technology and innovation fields;

Reiterates the commitment to the development of sustainable regional infrastructure projects that stimulate sustainable economic productivity, promoting equitable growth of regions across the urban-rural continuum, and encourages urban-rural interactions and connectivity by strengthening sustainable transport and mobility, and technology and communications networks and infrastructure, including connectivity between cities and their surroundings, peri-urban and rural areas, as well as greater land-sea connections, where appropriate;

Emphasizes that infrastructure development should be inclusive, which can be achieved through extensive consultation with affected communities, including on the economic, social and environmental impacts, and encourages Member States to provide opportunities for the engagement of relevant stakeholders, including local communities, Indigenous Peoples and people in vulnerable situations, in all stages of the process to identify, design, build and maintain infrastructure, and also emphasizes the importance of ensuring affordable and equitable access to infrastructure for all;

Also emphasizes the need to promote investments in infrastructure that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable;

Further emphasizes that the natural environment is an integral part of infrastructure systems, and acknowledges that natural infrastructure can include strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, water and soil, such as forests and wetlands, working landscapes and other open spaces that conserve or enhance ecosystem values and functions and provide associated benefits to human populations, and can provide cost-effective and resilient alternatives or complements to built infrastructure;

Calls for efforts to promote regional and interregional economic integration and cooperation, including by improving transportation infrastructure, enhancing connectivity and facilitating trade and investment, and reiterates its call upon States to ensure the normal functioning of open markets, global supply chain connectivity and cross-border travel for essential purposes, and to enhance the sustainability and resilience of supply chains;

Recognizes the importance of cooperation in establishing safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport networks supported by inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and commits to enhancing the role of sustainable transport in job creation, mobility facilitation and improvement of the efficiency of logistics chains in connecting people and communities, particularly people in vulnerable situations, thus providing all with equal opportunities and leaving no one behind;

Encourages Governments, relevant international and regional organizations and other stakeholders to promote investments in developing sustainable, reliable, modern, inclusive and equitable energy systems, inter alia, by strengthening energy systems through cross-border grid connections, as appropriate, and to reinforce their energy interconnections, connect regional energy markets and increase energy security at the global level, and acknowledges the efforts towards enhancing the stability and reliability of energy supplies to minimize the risks of disruptions;

Recognizes the contribution of digitalization to development and that the digital economy is an important and growing part of the global economy, expresses concern that substantial digital divides and inequalities exist within and among countries and regions and between developed and developing countries, which may worsen if the digitalization of the economy and rapid progress in science, technology and innovation are not carefully managed, and commits to redoubling efforts to ensure universal and affordable Internet access, by enhancing investment in digital infrastructure, digital skills training and digital literacy, as well as through targeted policies, especially for women and girls, youth and persons with disabilities, to close digital divides within and between countries and build an open, free and secure digital world;

Also recognizes that there is a pressing need to address the major impediments that developing countries face in engaging with and accessing new technologies, such as an appropriate enabling environment, sufficient resources, infrastructure, education, capacity, investment and connectivity, as well as issues related to technology ownership, setting standards and technology flows, and in this regard urges all stakeholders to consider ensuring appropriate financing of digital development and adequate means of implementation, including strengthened capacity-building of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, towards a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy;

Emphasizes the need to enhance resilience of digital infrastructure, and in this regard recognizes that digital networks and systems should be deployed with consideration of technological hazards and risks and that, in enhancing infrastructure connectivity and digital services, it is important to increase investments in the security of and in the use of information and communications technologies;

Recognizes the vital role of science, technology and innovation to improve the capacity of existing infrastructure, reduce maintenance and operating costs, and design new quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, and encourages enhanced infrastructure capacity-building support for developing countries and the promotion of joint research and development projects between countries for infrastructure;

Emphasizes the importance of the exchange of expertise, experience and technology on mutually agreed terms in promoting sustainable development, including through access to clean energy technology and disaster risk reduction strategies, and enhancing cooperation, including through initiatives that address environmental challenges and contribute to the protection of the environment and ecosystems, while ensuring social and environmental safeguards;

Recognizes that addressing the investment needs in developing quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure requires significant targeted investment from international and domestic public and private sectors accompanied by technical cooperation as well as overcoming investment barriers, including high perceived and real risks related to sustainable investments in low- and middle-income countries and the lack of pipelines of bankable sustainable projects, also recognizes the need for technical assistance and capacity-building support for investment promotion and developing project pipelines and bankable projects, in particular for developing countries, emphasizes the importance of strengthening national and international policy environments and regulatory frameworks as well as ensuring the economic, social and environmental sustainability of infrastructure projects, notes that more can be done to create competitive business and investment climates, and encourages the use of innovative tools and mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, blended finance, which combines concessional public finance, non-concessional private finance and expertise from the public and private sectors, special purpose vehicles, non-recourse project financing, risk mitigation instruments and pooled financing structures;

Emphasizes the importance of implementation of standards, guidelines and best practices relating to infrastructure development, in line with respective national legal frameworks, and encourages Member States to consider integrating them into national policies;

Takes note of the Group of 20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, which are a set of voluntary and non-binding principles adopted by the Group of 20;

Also takes note of the International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure, developed as part of the implementation of United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 4/5 of 15 March 2019 on sustainable infrastructure;

Notes the importance of sound infrastructure governance over the life cycle of the projects to ensure the long-term cost-effectiveness, economic efficiency, accountability, transparency and integrity of infrastructure investment, including through an open procurement process;

Emphasizes that effective operation, monitoring and maintenance of infrastructure systems, including through the use of innovative technologies, are essential to ensuring economic efficiency, quality, resilience and uninterrupted provision of essential services, and encourages countries to conduct a disaster risk assessment of existing critical infrastructure, ensure that infrastructure plans are aligned to disaster risk reduction strategies and risk assessments at all levels, make multi-hazard disaster risk assessments a prerequisite for infrastructure, routinely conduct stress testing of existing infrastructure and ensure that pipeline and bankable projects include multi-hazard and other measures that assess, prevent and mitigate risks;

Takes note of the principles for resilient infrastructure, and recognizes that they can support the development and implementation of disaster risk-informed and resilient infrastructure strategies, projects, regulations and policies at the local, national and regional levels and can contribute to a common understanding among the public and private sectors of resilient design standards for critical components of infrastructure systems based on scientific evidence of risks;

Calls upon the United Nations system and all relevant stakeholders to support the capacity-building of developing countries in their efforts to close the Sustainable Development Goals investment gaps, especially at the country programme level, on the use of public finance to leverage private investment for projects benefiting sustainable development, and encourages the exploration of innovative platform approaches to coordinating, scaling up and channelling public and private finance and technical assistance for quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure development;

Invites United Nations agencies, as well as regional and multilateral organizations, such as international financial institutions, along with development partners, such as multilateral and regional development banks, in line with their respective mandates, to promote and facilitate connectivity and regional integration through quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure development and through enhanced financial, technological and technical support, in particular to developing countries;

Invites the President of the General Assembly to hold a one-day informal dialogue of the Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, within existing resources, on the topic of building global resilience and promoting sustainable development through infrastructure connectivity, which could serve as an opportunity for presenting proposals to contribute to enhancing investments in quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including the possibility of establishing policy platforms under United Nations auspices.

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