Infrastructure Policy Watch: measuring India's progress on SDGs, Canada consults on infrastructure priorities

In this fortnightly blog, ICE's Director of Policy Chris Richards looks at developing policy landscape for infrastructure, what decisions mean, and their implications, so that infrastructure professionals can play their part in shaping the discussion.

Indian government think tank publishes its annual report on progress against the SDGs at the sub-national level

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), an Indian government policy commission, has published its SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21 report on progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the state level in India, its third annual report.

The main theme of this year’s report is ‘partnerships’, with NITI aiming to highlight the pace that can be achieved by working together in pursuit of the goals, as well as shine a light on the quiet but effective partnerships working away in the background.

As part of this, the report sets out actions that have been taken across the 11 areas of the collaborative advantage framework to drive forward progress on SDG indicators.

In the accompanying index, all Indian states and union territories are scored and ranked on each SDG, alongside progress over the year.

Kerala has come out top of the list, with Bihar at the bottom. NITI suggests that having this granular look at performance allows states to look at what they can learn from others, including the partnerships behind the scenes helping to make a difference.

Infrastructure Canada enters final weeks of consultation on its plans for a National Infrastructure Assessment

First published in March, the Building the Canada We Want in 2050 engagement exercise seeks views on matching the ambition to ‘build 21st-century infrastructure’ with improved strategic infrastructure planning and prioritisation founded on Canada’s first independent National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA).

Infrastructure Canada has outlined three priorities for the NIA:

• Assessing infrastructure needs and establishing a long-term vision.
• Improving coordination among infrastructure owners and funders.
• Determining the best ways to fund and finance infrastructure.

The consultation, which closes 30 June 2021, seeks views on the three priorities, alongside suggestions on how best to achieve them.

As part of that process, the Infrastructure Lab, run by Global Public Affairs, organised a roundtable to learn the experience from the UK’s National Infrastructure Assessment, which saw Rachel Skinner, ICE’s President, sharing the institution's views on the subject based on the Enabling Better Infrastructure principles.

In case you missed it...

• ICE analysed the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) committee’s report into proposed changes to the planning system in England, which echoed several ICE recommendations.

• Neil Grant, COP26 Research Fellow at Policy Connect, explains the new Climate Policy Dashboardwhich tracks UK government policy progress on net-zero.

• Emma Pinchbeck, Chief Executive at Energy UK,discusses the impact of electrified transport on the energy system.

Check back in a fortnight for the next edition of the ICE's Infrastructure Policy Watch. You can also sign up to ICE Informs to get a monthly digest of the latest policy activities from ICE, including calls for evidence to support our ongoing advice to policymakers.