EAP has obtained a copy of the UK Government Department for International Development’s (DFID) infrastructure policy through a freedom of information request. DFID spends in excess of GBP£1 billion annually on infrastructure. This includes its work on energy, transport, water and sanitation, information and communications technology, housing and public buildings. The policy analyses DFID’s ‘comparative advantage’ in these sectors, identifies priority actions and makes the case for integrating the cross-cutting priorities of ‘climate and environment, poverty and girls and women’ across its portfolio.

Commenting on the policy, EAP Executive Director Petter Matthews said: “We are grateful to DFID for releasing this important information. DFID invests over £1bn per annum in infrastructure and the importance of its contribution should not be underestimated. It has for example been instrumental in establishing innovative institutional approaches such as the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), CoST and more recently, the Infrastructure and Cities for Economic Development (ICED) Facility. It has also championed what are important gaps in the approaches of some other investors such as governance, value for money and the need to incorprate considerations of gender and social inclusion. It will be interesting to see how DFID implements its policy in a rapidly changing environment with new investors such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the accelerating impacts of climate change in some of the poorest countries.”