Technology providers have submitted solutions to make roads more sustainable in emerging markets.
Following a call for submissions issued by the Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) and eight multilateral development banks (MDBs) in March 2023, nearly 50 technology providers have submitted solutions to make roads more sustainable in emerging markets.
The call for submissions is a programme of the GI Hub and its MDB partners, African Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, World Bank and World Bank Global Infrastructure Facility.
The programme’s purpose is to help governments and investors in the roads sector in emerging markets make roads more sustainable by providing access to a pipeline of technology-enabled solutions. The call for submissions closed on 12 April and initial assessment identified the qualifying submissions.
After the 12 April submission deadline, screening began to identify the qualifying submissions. Qualifying solutions are those that demonstrated they comply with the mandatory criteria of the call for submissions, are ready to implement or deploy within 12 months and meet one or more of the use cases listed below.
- Prevent critical asset failures and manage costs by enabling road maintenance to be more accurately prioritised.
- Ensure roads continue to operate during disasters and extreme weather events by improving road resilience.
- Help prioritise CO2 emission mitigation efforts by more accurately measuring and analysing emissions.
- Support decarbonisation and reduce pollution from roads during design, construction, and operation.
- Minimise the loss of human lives by improving road safety, particularly in and around construction sites, city streets, and school zones.
The GI Hub said that the response was excellent, with submissions coming from 19 countries across Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East, North America and Oceania. The solutions they propose address a wide range of opportunities to make roads more sustainable and use a range of different InfraTech approaches and technologies. The diversity of the solutions is also a strong indicator of the number of technology solutions that are awaiting their opportunity to break into the infrastructure sector and scale up.
The next steps are for the GI Hub and MDB partners to closely evaluate each of the qualifying submissions and the top five solutions are due to be announced in May 2023. These top five will then receive coaching to pitch their solution to the MDBs for consideration on current and future road projects.
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