Chief executive’s report

FIDIC chief executive’s report

As I write my update for this year’s FIDIC Annual Report, I do so with a sense of real optimism about the future and pride in how FIDIC and our organisation at every level has responded to the challenges of the recent period. Once again, the Covid pandemic cast its shadow over the past 12 months, but FIDIC redoubled its efforts and continued to work in an agile and flexible way to ensure that we delivered on behalf of our members and the wider global industry. So much so, that I believe that we have emerged from recent challenges with FIDIC on a much firmer footing that we were before the pandemic.

The focus of my update this year will cover the ‘new normal’, FIDIC’s stakeholder engagement, diversity and inclusion, communications to stakeholders, support to our MAs, financial viability, the FIDIC Climate Change Change Charter and some closing thoughts.

The ‘new normal’

Our response to the Covid pandemic, followed by the impact of the war in Ukraine, global energy crisis, rising inflation and potential global recession, has resulted in FIDIC adopting technology-based delivery of services to members and stakeholders. A new business model, coupled with hybrid working, seems to be the new normal and a way forward for the future. Our online conferences and events programme has kept our stakeholders engaged and informed and we were bold enough to take an early decision to look to hold our annual FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference as an in-person event in Geneva, which has certainly paid off. The uncertainty of the past two years has taught us all to expect and plan for the unexpected and I am delighted and proud at how the FIDIC management team and staff under the direction of the board have responded to the challenges we’ve all faced and this stands us in good stead for the future.

Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, FIDIC chief executive.

Stakeholder engagement

As this annual report illustrates, FIDIC has made further significant steps forward over the past year and is increasingly making a positive impact on our industry. Our committees and advisory councils continue to do important work (page 14-18), reaching out to key stakeholders and developing plans and strategies to address the key issues facing the engineering, construction and infrastructure sector. The last 12 months also saw us hold our Official FIDIC Contract Users’ Conferences as in-house-organised event (page 28-29), thus beginning the process of bringing our contract users closer to FIDIC and putting them at the centre of these important events for our industry.

This report’s review of the year (page 22-25) shows the frankly enormous scale of the work and activity that FIDIC is undertaking on behalf of our industry and I never cease to be amazed by the enthusiasm of our staff and volunteers who continue to go the extra mile in delivering on behalf of our member associations and the industry we represent. I am confident that activity will continue over the next 12

months as FIDIC steps up to the challenges we face in an ever-changing world.

Diversity and inclusion

Speaking of change, a key priority for FIDIC over the past year (and coming years too) has been the diversity and inclusion agenda. We have put steps in place to ensure that our board and committees better represent our industry and society and I am pleased to report that we have taken some key steps forward in this area. Backed up by our revitalised and modernised governance structure, which is now working through the organisation, FIDIC is much better placed to deal with the challenge of change. We still have a road to travel on diversity - and not just in the area of gender – but I am confident that with the measures we have put in place we will see further strides forward over the coming 12 months.

Improved communications

As ever, communications remain super-important for FIDIC as we continue to do more and make a greater impact and that is why we have continued with the monthly CEO’s Update issued to all our members and stakeholders during the year. If people do not get to hear about what we are doing, then it may as well have never happened, so we have taken further steps over the past year to improve our communications and marketing output and impact. In addition to the improvement in our website and YouTube output, our online news and information platform Infrastructure Global has really developed apace and our social media is thriving and vibrant (page 38). I look forward to more progress being made over the coming year. Communication and engagement with FIDIC’s regional groups has also improved over the last year with our regionalisation agenda helping to empower our geographical regions around the world as well as their member associations. FIDIC has a global footprint and it is important that we act in a global way, but not just through the Geneva HQ. The FIDIC regional groups - in Africa, Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe and Pan-America - will play an increasingly important and influential role for us going forward.

Support to FIDIC member associations

As always, FIDIC remains focused on delivering on behalf of its member associations. In everything that we do we are constantly thinking about how we can leverage our advocacy for the benefit of our MAs, large, medium and small. We know that our smaller members need specific assistance and that is why we collectivise the experience and knowledge of our wider group of MAs and our committees to ensure that outputs are tailored for use by all members. The large resources developed over the last two years, which now form part of the FIDIC Body of Knowledge in terms of webinars delivered, State of the World reports, briefing notes and bulletins produced, are all available on our website or YouTube for download by our MAs for use at national level The pandemic and now the post-Covid period has seen many changes in the leaderships of a number of our MAs. FIDIC stands by ready to assist these new leaders by ensuring that we reach out and collectivise the knowledge and resources that we have at our disposal to ensure that everyone can learn from the experience we have within the FIDIC organisation.

Financial viability

As you will see from the treasurer’s report (page 10-11) FIDIC’s finances are in a healthy position. That’s down to the hard work of everyone concerned but we do not rest on our laurels. We are continuing to invest in our training, now branded as the FIDIC Academy, and also our conference platform as well as developing new contracts and standards and improving our publications sales platform to ensure that we can reduce our dependence on subscription income and thereby provide better value to our members and stakeholders. The current FIDIC Strategic Plan will help us to keep on track up to and beyond its term in 2024 as we seek to build and run an organisation that is connected, effective, efficient and proactive in engaging with all our key stakeholders. FIDIC Climate Change Charter More than ever, we live in a global and connected world. With the COP27 conference on the horizon, bringing with it yet more global conversations on climate change, it is clear that the key subject of sustainability is the issue of the hour. FIDIC is addressing that with our Climate Change Charter (CCC) and by embedding sustainability in everything that we do as an organisation. The CCC initiative, launched during the COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, provides opportunities for FIDIC, its member associations, consulting firms, project delivery teams and individuals to sign up to the initiative so that our industry can play its role in achieving the UN sustainable development goals by 2050, take forward the circular economy and

meet net zero commitments. We are proud to be a global organisation that brings people, businesses and cultures together. It’s what we do. Leadership is also critical and our newly Global Leadership Forum (page 12-13) will enable FIDIC to remain connected with those important large firms internationally so that we can feed this knowledge and influence back into “A new business our MAs as we leverage that collective experience on behalf of the global model, coupled industry. with hybrid In conclusion working, seems to I said at the start of this report that I believe that FIDIC is better positioned be the new normal than ever before to take advantage of the opportunities and challenges facing and a way forward our global industry. Through our work, connections and people we can make for the future..” a real difference to those we represent. FIDIC aspires to be the go-to organisation for our engineering, construction and infrastructure sector and this will continue to be our aim as we rise to new challenges to provide the leadership and vibrant network that our industry needs in the months and years ahead. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the FIDIC board, committee and council members, member associations, staff, partners and our wider industry stakeholders for their collective efforts and support during the last 12 months, without which it would have been very difficult to deliver our achievements for the period under review.