INTRODUCTION

1.The Conference Territorial Development Policy: the Role of Infrastructures is part of an ongoing research of the Territorial Development Policy Committee (TDPC) of the OECD on infrastructure policies in relation to territorial development and is held in collaboration with the UK Department for Transport, Local Government and Regions (DTLR).

2.In the last years governments of OECD countries and the OECD Secretariat identified shifts in the development processes occurring in their countries, regions and local communities as well as in the policies supporting these processes. These shifts, together with a large consensus regarding the importance of governance in territorial development, as well as the interests of the co-organising party the United Kingdom (UK) government, more specifically the DTLR, have been the basis for the choice of the issues to be discussed and debated upon at the Conference.

3.Before entering in this choice, it is important to lay out briefly the shifts and the concerns relating to governance, as identified by OECD members. The shifts taking place in development policies in most OECD countries are:

  • from subsidies to competitiveness-enhancing policies in addressing territorial disparities; and
  • from traditional sectoral to space-based sectoral or multi-sectoral actions (both in rural and urban areas);

4.The concerns of the governments relating to governance can be focussed in particular on innovative solutions in the governance of territorial development policies, namely in the institutional partnerships among different levels of government and in partnerships involving social partners and civil society.

5.The added value of the Conference will be that it provides a forum where representatives coming from OECD member countries, UK public officials, representatives from the private sector and international organisations will have the opportunity to share ideas, evaluate, analyse and promote innovative solutions used in policies of infrastructure development. These policies in turn support and facilitate territorial development policies for countries, regions and local communities.

Choice of types of infrastructure

6.Before entering into the outline of the issues that will be discussed at the Conference it is important to set out the approach the TDPC is undertaking with regard to conducting research on infrastructures.

7.The research will aim at covering different types of infrastructures involving hard infrastructures, soft infrastructures and green infrastructures. In its first phase, consisting of the Conference, attention will be given to hard infrastructures and in particular to Transport, Energy and ICT infrastructures. These infrastructures appeared to raise great interest in the OECD countries and in the United Kingdom which is the host of the event. Nevertheless, in its second phase attention will also be given to other categories of infrastructures.

8.At the Conference there will be presentations on research on infrastructure development and projects regarding the three categories of hard infrastructures mentioned above. On the basis of these presentations, the chairpersons’ introduction papers and additional documentation circulated at the conference, an attempt will be made to answer the questions raised, and to fulfil the objectives set out, for the separate sessions. In view of the fact that the Conference is a first phase in an ongoing research on infrastructures it will foremost provide the possibility to specify on which issues and in which direction research on infrastructures will have to be conducted. Starting the research with hard infrastructures, on which extensive knowledge has already been accumulated over the years, a platform can be created from which research on "newer" types of infrastructures, soft infrastructures and green infrastructures, can be undertaken.

Urban, Intermediate and Rural Areas

9.Next to covering the different types of hard infrastructure, participants at the Conference will take into consideration, the different types of territorial areas: rural areas, intermediate areas and urban areas. At the Conference attention will be given to these differences as well as to the particularities of the different types of areas, in the presentations to be held at the Conferences, as well as in the introduction papers provided by the Chairpersons.

Proposals

10.Within the described framework of the research conducted by the Territorial Development Policy Committee on infrastructures in relation to territorial development, the Territorial Development Service (TDS) of the OECD supporting this Committee proposes various possibilities to continue the described research after the Conference.

11.Before elaborating on these proposals it is important to note a trend concerning the use of the concept infrastructure.

The research field “infrastructures” has become very vast which can lead to a reduced meaning of the concept. To put it more clearly the concept infrastructure is applied in many policy areas (for example in education and healthcare policies, organisation and management policies or environment policies) and has thereby become a container concept encompassing many meanings. Therefore holding an overall research on infrastructures without a specific focus loses significance because no general recommendations or principles can be formulated which apply to this divergence of types of infrastructure.

12.Nevertheless, within the framework of these different types of infrastructures, it is worthwhile to do research on infrastructures in relation to territorial development. The issues discussed in the Conference Territorial Development Policy: the Role, of Infrastructures, integrating infrastructures into territorial development policies; land purchasing and the Not In My Back Yard issue; horizontal and vertical governance partnerships and the financing of infrastructures are also of interest in the proposals that will be raised.

Based on this assumption the proposals are the following:

  1. Organise a Conference on different types of so-called “hard” infrastructures with the overall objective to better integrate policies to develop these infrastructures into territorial development policies. After having focussed on Transport, Energy and ICT infrastructures, this Conference would focus on Health, Education and Water Infrastructures (H.E.W.). By focussing on these infrastructures the attention of the research is in a relative way redirected from infrastructures supporting primarily economic growth to infrastructures which support the effective fulfilment of the basic needs of individual persons.

In various OECD countries citizens and governments indicate that there is a crisis in their health care sector. The OECD engaged itself in 2001 for a three year Health Project. The project focuses on measuring and analysing, the performance of health care systems in OECD Member countries and factors affecting performance. The purpose of the analysis is to help decision-makers formulate evidence-based policies to improve their health systems' performance. The reason for this project is the fact that policymakers are facing a number of major policy challenges: A rising demand due mainly to population ageing and rapid innovation and diffusion of medical technology; a concern about efficiency in provision; and continuing health inequalities. Part of these inequalities is caused by the existence of disparities between countries and even between regions with regard to health care facilities provided to citizens and communities. Even though the principle that every territorial unit has its own development potential and thus not every unit will require the same amount and kind of facilities/infrastructures, has gained large support, the equity principle is currently considered essential in the provision of health care. Thereby the provision of health care facilities becomes an issue with a strong territorial perspective for which the issues mentioned previously could be raised.

Another basic need to citizens is an effective and efficient provision of education. However also in the accessibility to education facilities disparities exist within OECD countries. First of all in remote areas the equity and efficiency principles are sometimes viewed incompatible. In certain areas preservation of small classes and school facilities is considered to cost too much with as a result the closing of school facilities. Consequently the accessibility of education has in physical and financial ways become less. The problem becomes even more important for higher education levels where the facilities are scarcer and differences between the education quality provided between facilities can become bigger. To counter these problems OECD countries have developed in different ways social policies in the form of scholarships for students or transport services for children living far from school. However new possibilities related to infrastructure development are available to try to solve these problems. One of these possibilities is the creation of distance learning, which necessitate the adequate infrastructures, such as closed networks or videoconferencing possibilities so that courses can be followed from a distance. Next to education programs, the availability of the necessary facilities and equipment is essential to create opportunities for children and citizens in general to be able to enjoy a good education. Nevertheless differences between existing facilities exist, which relate to the available equipment. With these examples it becomes clear that also the provision of education has a territorial component. Furthermore the issues raised before are also with regard to education infrastructures more or less applicable.

Water management infrastructures such as dykes, dams, large irrigation systems, or water purification systems fulfil various basic needs of citizens, such as the provision of drinking water, the creation of opportunities for agriculture in arid regions and upholding security against natural disasters. Certainly in view of the increasing emphasis made on national and international level on the scarcity of water resources and rising sea and river levels it would be interesting and important to focus on infrastructures which would help to solve these problems. In several countries, for example Mexico, r the United Sates, Portugal or the Netherlands the mentioned trends have been identified, thereby emphasising the need to do research on these infrastructures which (should) take into account the needs of territorial entities.

  1. It is also possible to organise research on the so-called “soft infrastructures”, which relate to services provided in different sectors to stimulate and develop social and human capital. Although “hard infrastructures” are a necessary pre-condition for success they are primarily supporting policies to stimulate economic growth, guarantee social security and stimulate information and knowledge gathering and counter health care problems. Instead of focussing on concrete physical facilities soft infrastructures refer rather to the services provided to citizens with a strong human component. They are for example networks of citizens and associations and learning communities. The use of the concept “soft” infrastructures is ever more increasing in the OECD countries. However, it seems that a clear definition of this (relative) new concept has not yet been established. It is therefore wise to start the research on these infrastructures in relation to territorial development by a definition process, which could take the form of a large survey research, followed by a or several expert meetings.
  2. A third proposal is to focus research upon another new concept, which is “green infrastructures”. In view of increasing concern regarding the problem of deforestation (last month an international Conference of the UN was organised in the Hague regarding the Convention on Biological Diversity) and the reduction of greenfields in urban areas, policies are developed to counter these problems. In the United States policies are developed to re-introduce trees in urban but also rural areas. The European Union provides already for years funding to farmers for not cultivating certain land and preserve green areas. The creation of natural parks furthermore contributes to the preservation of so-called “green infrastructures”. To conclude, in view of their scarcity one might consider them to be and economic good. These developments have a direct effect upon territorial units and could change next to the environment their economic position. Next to positively contributing to reducing health care problems, related to pollution they can also stimulate certain economic sectors such as the tourism and the pharmaceutical industry. Strongly related to the preservation and the development of green infrastructures is the development of waste management infrastructures. They have a clear territorial component and emphasise the problem of negative spillover effects. In view of the demographic growth that can be discerned all around the world, the waste problem becomes to an increasing amount urgent. How to deal with this problem by developing waste management infrastructures and at the same time integrate these infrastructures into territorial development policies to uphold principles of equity and effectiveness and efficiency is an important question in a globalised world with increasing environmental concerns. Raising issues such as, integrating the development of green and waste management infrastructures into territorial development policies, governance partnerships, financing and Nimbyism is important to accomplish the fulfilment of these principles.

Session 1 Developing infrastructures in view of stimulating endogenous Development

Objective Session I

13.This Session aims at developing ways to evaluate needs of territorial units for infrastructure development and determining criteria for evaluating infrastructure development policies. More specifically the Session will help to set a first step in establishing the criteria, which will enable researchers, policymakers and politicians to evaluate if the shift in paradigm regarding development policies is successfully implemented in policymaking processes.

Rationale

14.The TDPC has identified a general trend towards a more space-based development on the basis of identifying the development potential of territorial units, their needs and the involvement of private sector actors as well as actors from civil society in a more bottom-up approach to policy-processes. The need to use this approach does not fundamentally differ between types of infrastructure. The same territorial development strategy will be applied to Transport, Energy and ICT infrastructures. Naturally, the implementation of this strategy can differ between the different types and within the categories of infrastructure but at the basis the strategy should remain the same.

15.Infrastructures are facilitating elements, which can support the policies of a territorial unit (local community, region, country or even trans-national region) to attain maximisation of the assets of the unit (territorial capital). Instead of being an end to itself infrastructure development is a mean to obtain economic growth; however it is an important mean. Infrastructures have a direct and physical impact on the areas in which they are developed. It will thereby directly effect the characteristics of an area and thus the assets of a territorial unit. As a consequence it is essential that the choice of infrastructure development is a deliberated one, based on the particularity of a territory and consequently expressed needs. The principle of particularity was identified in one of the latest publications of the Territorial Development Service (TDS) Cities for Citizens (OECD, 2001) which includes the principles for Metropolitan Governance, which have been adopted by the OECD Council. It states that: except where the case of standardisation is justified, policies and institutions of government must be craftedto fit the unique circumstances of various parts of the country and to achieve the best cost efficiency Even though this principle was drawn up for governance in metropolitan regions it can be applied to rural and intermediate areas as well. The differences between those areas and with urban areas underlines the importance of focussing on particularity with regard to policymaking.

16.On the basis of the particularities of a territorial unit, needs occur, which can include for example: the need for roads, or railways providing a rural region with better accessibility to other regions and countries. This accessibility in turn, could support economic endogenous development making use of a technically trained and skilled labour force of a region who can be used for the metal industry and which uses the iron resources of the region. It is therefore important to take these needs into account and if possible to anticipate to them by well identifying the development potential of a territorial unit.

17.For a long time this was not done and a so-called traditional sectoral approach was used for infrastructure and territorial development. This traditional sectoral approach means that a relatively top-down approach is conducted in which general policies, discarding specific characteristics of spatial areas, are formulated. Consequently these policies were and are not able to identify properly the development potential of a territorial unit, determine the needs of territorial units and distinguish which infrastructures should be developed to facilitate fulfilment of this potential. It furthermore does not provide sufficient possibilities, due to its top-down approach, to change needs into demands, which is an important phase in the initiation of development policies.

18.In contrast, a space-based approach takes the development potential of territorial units as its starting point and tries to identify, analyse, evaluate, and if possible anticipate needs.

19.It does not suffice to determine what are the needs (because there are always plenty of them). It is also essential to value those needs through evaluation. This means that not only the needs based on the potential of a unit are taken into consideration but also the obstacles which have led to the fact that the potential of, for example, a region or country have not been reached. This evaluation has to be done because a realistic prioritisation in the development of a territorial unit is necessary, due to a restricted amount of resources.

To give an example:

The potential of a region in a particular sector, e.g. tourism, is minor but the obstacles are major such as important degradation of cultural and natural assets as well as the fact that the sector would only supply a small number of extra jobs. However, in the sector of Agricultural industry this region might offer an important potential, due to an important number of farms in the region and the creation of several professional schools to train persons to become farmers or for agriculture related jobs. By supporting the agricultural based industry an important number of jobs could be created, the costs of transportation could be reduced significantly, because the industry is already on location, and endogenous development in related sectors could be stimulated.