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Transformative Outcomes Through Infrastructure
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Overview
This initiative of the GI Hub is tracking the amount of infrastructure as a stimulus announced by G20 governments and presenting ongoing analyses and data insights to help governments, investors, multilateral development banks, and project directors achieve transformative outcomes from infrastructure in the post-COVID-19 recovery.
The GI Hub collaborated with G20 member and guest economies in tracking and analysing announcements of infrastructure as a stimulus. Our key findings from infrastructure stimulus tracked between February 2020 and August 2021 are detailed in the charts below and include:
Infrastructure investment has a strong impact on economic growth, as evidenced by a 2020 GI Hub study that found the economic multiplier for public investment (including infrastructure) is 1.5 times greater than the initial investment in two to five years – much higher than other forms of public spending. This is a compelling argument for infrastructure as a stimulus post-COVID-19; however, the GI Hub is also encouraging government and industry to look beyond infrastructure’s impact on economic growth and consider it as a means to achieve transformative outcomes for people and the planet.
Given that nearly half of the infrastructure for 2050 is either already built, under construction, or being planned – there is an urgent need to ensure investments address both fiscal constraints and social inequalities, transforming our economies toward an environmentally sustainable, inclusive, resilient, and digitally-enabled future.
Transformative outcomes are those that have the greatest impacts on our most pressing global challenges, including the climate crisis, social inequality, adaptability and resilience.
The pandemic has resulted in the highest ever government debts and increased social inequalities, including inequalities in access to the public services enabled by infrastructure. Investment in infrastructure as a stimulus creates an opportunity to achieve economic development outcomes such as job creation and economic growth while also advancing sustainability, inclusivity, and resilience.
The GI Hub examined 13 transformative outcomes that were observed in the G20’s infrastructure as a stimulus announcements. These outcomes were grouped into six categories: environmental sustainability, inclusivity, resilience, digital / infrastructure technology (InfraTech), research and development, and economic development. Note that one transformative outcome (digital connectivity) falls under two categories.
The table below shows the transformative outcomes with examples of infrastructure that achieves these outcomes. For the analyses of infrastructure as a stimulus packages presented in this initiative, the GI Hub classified stimulus packages according to the transformative outcomes they are likely targeting. Some stimulus announcements were found to target more than one transformative outcome. All infrastructure as a stimulus achieves economic development outcomes, including job creation and economic growth.
Hover over an outcome for further detail
