The UN Economic Commission for Europe has launched a methodology for scoring and evaluating potential infrastructure projects with consideration of impacts on SDG areas. The updated draft evaluation methodology is part of UNECE’s process on “people-first” public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Published on 12 December 2020, the draft methodology builds on the UNECE People-first PPP Guiding Principles, which defines such PPPs as having five outcomes: access and equity; economic effectiveness and fiscal sustainability; replicability; environmental sustainability and resilience; and stakeholder engagement.

The evaluation methodology consists of:

• benchmarks and indicators that demonstrate achievement in each of the five People-first PPP outcomes;
• a weighting and ranking of these outcomes along with other issues pertinent to scoring; and
• a scoring system to help governments and other partners to revise and adjust projects to make them more compliant with the People-first PPP outcomes and the SDGs.

As explained within the draft, the “whole purpose of the evaluation methodology is to … foster improvements in the projects themselves.” A UNECE press release indicates that the methodology can support countries efforts to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic, and improve infrastructure projects by incorporating resilience and sustainability at their core, from the earliest stages of project development.

During a meeting on PPPs held from 1-2 December 2020, UNECE member States approved an action plan to test and use the evaluation methodology on actual projects within 2021. [Publication: A revised draft People-first Public-Private Partnerships Evaluation Methodology for the Sustainable Development Goals: Note by the Bureau]