Global Leadership Forum update

FIDIC announced the formation of the Global Leadership Forum in September 2021 to bring senior influencers and decision makers together from the construction and infrastructure sectors to help address the critical issues faced by society and the industry and to develop workable solutions to solve them.

As Tony Barry, FIDIC president, explained: “The forum provides a powerful global network for leaders to discuss these key issues. Through their discussions, deliberations and actions, we will be able to build a solid coalition of support and buy-in for what needs to be done to address the key global challenges we face and, crucially, how we collaborate to solve them. Participants in FIDIC’s Global Leadership Forum are selected based on their prominent knowledge and expertise across the sector and around the globe.” Advisory board convenes

The Global Leadership Forum is led by a global advisory board of 18 industry leaders who share expertise and help set the direction of the forum, examining areas for research ranging from climate metrics to the UN sustainable development goals.

Advisory board members were selected on the basis of their key positions, knowledge and expertise of the engineering, investment, construction and wider infrastructure sectors. The advisory board has a remit to establish working think tanks with a mandate to bring other global industry leaders together to deliberate on key global issues and produce tangible insights to enhance the sector’s public engagement and activity.

Think Tank 1

Think Tank 2 Topic Industry recognition Sustainability and the sustainable development goals

Objective To develop programmes to promote global leaders across the infrastructure sector and to recognise their achievements and key role in meeting goals like the SDGs, net zero and the infrastructure deficit. To provide global leadership around delivering sustainable infrastructure and encouraging global cooperation to meet the SDGs and net zero.

Output Publication of a ranking list of top industry leaders (Top 100/Top 50). This will aim to establish a recognised listing of the top players in the global infrastructure sector across various criteria. Case studies showcasing how the infrastructure sector can influence Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions in projects. An analysis of ESG metrics to assist the global infrastructure sector in the identification and adoption of common reporting standard. Think Tank 3

Think Tank 4 Market intelligence Delivering tomorrow’s infrastructure

The GLF’s market intelligence and insight theme provides data and expert insight into market conditions and company performance to inform work to determine the future of the infrastructure sector. A regular sentiment survey to keep track on the status of the global infrastructure sector. An in-depth global benchmarking research project into the state of the global infrastructure sector. If you are standing still, you are falling behind> This project brings together the leadership of the GLF’s members to discuss and consider what tomorrow may hold for the sector and what actions may be needed. The publication of a major thought leadership piece outlining future scenarios for the global infrastructure sector.

The advisory board met in early January 2022 to agree the topics for four think tanks and to mobilise their activities. The following graphic outlines their objectives and outputs.

Members attended events throughout the year

During the year, the Global Leadership Forum ran a programme of events for members, which included the launch event at the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in September 2021, followed by virtual meetings in January and November. At these events, members heard from speakers from around the world, including those from multilateral development banks, advisory firms, climate change experts and infrastructure investors.

Looking ahead to 2023, work is well advanced to host the first in-person Global Leadership Forum Summit event in Geneva, Switzerland, to determine how the most senior influencers in the global infrastructure market can collaborate to exert greater influence and to enable enduring change. This event will be complemented by two virtual meetings in June and November and see the outputs from the think tanks established during the year.

As FIDIC CEO Dr Nelson Ogunshakin points out: “When we announced the formation of the Global Leadership Forum, we did so with the aim of bringing key influencers and decision-makers together from the construction and infrastructure sectors to help address the critical issues we face as a society and an industry and to develop workable solutions to solve them.

“In our first year of operation, we have achieved our objective and grown to just over 100 members, creating a powerful coalition for collaboration and change.”