The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for partnerships, including public-private partnerships (PPPs), as a tool to address critical infrastructure challenges and close the infrastructure gap. But traditional PPPs often prioritize economic viability over social impact and environmental sustainability, and the lack of capacity among public officials and the complexity in their design and management presents limitations to guarantee sustainable development.
To achieve their social and environmental value beyond their economic value, PPPs need to adopt a human rights-based approach and be “fit for purpose” for the SDGs. In this context, the ECE has developed the ‘PPPs for the SDGs’ approach as a model to foster access to essential public services for all, with sustainable development as its objective and people at its core. The ECE “PPP and Infrastructure Evaluation and Rating System (PIERS): An Evaluation Methodology for the SDGs” (PIERS methodology) was developed by ECE to evaluate and score PPP and infrastructure projects against the SDGs to ensure that these projects prioritize social and environmental value.

This project will use the PIERS methodology as a roadmap and implementing tool to strengthen the capacity of public officials in Member States to develop green, circular, resilient, and high-quality PPPs in support of the SDGs for transformational change.

The planned results include increased capacity of public officials to identify, develop and implement PPP and infrastructure projects aligned with the SDGs that prioritize social impact and environmental sustainability alongside economic viability. This will contribute to closing the infrastructure gap and achieving meaningful progress towards the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.