TY - JOUR
T1 - "Stop talking around projects and talk about solutions" : positioning health within infrastructure policy to achieve the sustainable development goals
AU - Harris, Patrick
AU - Riley, Emily
AU - Dawson, Angus
AU - Friel, Sharon
AU - Lawson, Kenny
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Purpose and setting: Infrastructure is a global multi-trillion dollar market presenting many opportunities and risks for sustainable development. This article aims to foster better conceptualisation of the connections and tensions between infrastructure policy and public health in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially ‘good health and wellbeing’ (number 3) and ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’ (number 9), based on findings from interviews with a purposive sample of senior practicing Australian infrastructure policy makers. Principal findings: We use an institutional framework to explore the ideas, actors, rules and mandates, and procedures underpinning the inclusion of health in infrastructure policy. Informants defined infrastructure as the construction and provision of services that facilitate economic, environmental and social outcomes. The tendency to default to infrastructure as essential for economic success has fundamental challenges for the SDGs, particularly the politically driven pursuit of ‘mega-project’ legacies, sector-specific siloed governance arrangements, and inadequate conceptualisations of costs and benefits. Conclusions: Public health and infrastructure policy are mutually re-enforcing given they both concern the public interest with implications for all 17 SDGs. Positioning health and wellbeing as fundamental societal outcomes from infrastructure decisions would go a long way to helping achieve the SDGs.
AB - Purpose and setting: Infrastructure is a global multi-trillion dollar market presenting many opportunities and risks for sustainable development. This article aims to foster better conceptualisation of the connections and tensions between infrastructure policy and public health in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially ‘good health and wellbeing’ (number 3) and ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’ (number 9), based on findings from interviews with a purposive sample of senior practicing Australian infrastructure policy makers. Principal findings: We use an institutional framework to explore the ideas, actors, rules and mandates, and procedures underpinning the inclusion of health in infrastructure policy. Informants defined infrastructure as the construction and provision of services that facilitate economic, environmental and social outcomes. The tendency to default to infrastructure as essential for economic success has fundamental challenges for the SDGs, particularly the politically driven pursuit of ‘mega-project’ legacies, sector-specific siloed governance arrangements, and inadequate conceptualisations of costs and benefits. Conclusions: Public health and infrastructure policy are mutually re-enforcing given they both concern the public interest with implications for all 17 SDGs. Positioning health and wellbeing as fundamental societal outcomes from infrastructure decisions would go a long way to helping achieve the SDGs.
KW - United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
KW - economic policy
KW - infrastructure (economics)
KW - planning
KW - public health
KW - sustainable development
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:50830
U2 - 10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.11.013
DO - 10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.11.013
M3 - Article
SN - 0168-8510
VL - 124
SP - 591
EP - 598
JO - Health Policy
JF - Health Policy
IS - 6
ER -