23 January 2016: The Financing for Development Office (FFDO) of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) updated UN Member States on the 2017 Global Infrastructure Forum, which will take place during the World Bank Spring Meetings.

The Forum expects to host 600 people and will have eight breakout sessions, two plenary meetings (opening and closing), and a short session over lunch, all related to sustainable infrastructure “with particular links to climate change,” said Pablo Pereira, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The 2017 Forum will take place on 22 April, at IDB headquarters in Washington, DC, US. The Global Infrastructure Forum was called for in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) adopted in July 2015. At the first session of the Forum in April 2016, it was agreed that the leadership and hosting of future sessions of the Forum will rotate among the multilateral development banks (MDBs). The organization of the 2017 Global Infrastructure Forum is led jointly by IDB and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Pereira announced that the website for the Forum will be launched in two weeks on the World Bank website. As the Forum takes place, videos will be posted of each breakout session and plenary.

The outcome of the Forum is expected to be a Chair’s statement, to be negotiated by the MDBs and other partners.

Thomas Barrett, EIB, said each breakout session is being developed collaboratively by several MDBs, and will reflect diverse regional circumstances. He indicated that: IDB will collaborate with the Brazilian Development Bank and the New Development Bank; the World Bank will collaborate with the Development Bank of Southern Africa; the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will collaborate with a number of regional banks; and the African Development Bank (AfDB) will collaborate with the Netherlands Development Finance Company for a breakout session on sustainable energy in Africa.

The outcome of the Forum is expected to be a Chair’s statement, to be negotiated by the MDBs and other partners. Barrett said the document will build on the 2016 outcome, which serves as a baseline. He reported that a data collection exercise is underway to assess progress on the priorities set by the 2016 outcome.

In the ensuing discussion, Member States raised questions related to: the link between the Global Infrastructure Forum and the Financing for Development Forum (FfD Forum); links with the High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF); and how social aspects of the SDGs will be integrated in the Forum’s agenda. Shari Spiegel, FFDO, explained that the Global Infrastructure Forum will report back to the FfD Forum, whose outcome will then feed into the HLPF. [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Forum Preparations, December 2015] [IISD Sources]