Resilient infrastructure decisions: putting scientific and technical analyses in action for international development
Abstract
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an independent US foreign aid agency that provides time-limited grants to promote economic growth, reduce poverty, and strengthen institutions in select partner countries throughout the developing world. Large infrastructure projects are a hallmark of MCC's work, placing planners squarely at the often-chaotic intersection of earth surface processes, engineering practice, and socio-political forces. The agency is committed both to evidence-based decision-making and to the rigorous, independent evaluation of its projects. However, MCC faces a trio of challenges when trying to leverage scientific and technical analysis to inform investment and implementation decisions: time, data, and capacity.
Many of MCC's partner countries are among those that, due to a combination of exposure and sensitivity, are expected to be relatively more vulnerable to changing climate. For other partner countries, no climate vulnerability data are available. MCC projects are conceived with an intermediate time horizon in mind: they must have an expected economic rate of return in excess of 10% over a 20 year window. Resilience to changing circumstances - including climate, but also demography and institutional management of infrastructure - is therefore of increasing interest to MCC. How can the agency's choices during project selection, design, and implementation help safeguard the sustainability of investments and secure projected benefits? Can scientific and technical analyses can help inform these choices? We explore the challenges of time, data, and capacity through the lens of a case study focused on MCC efforts in the area of climate-resilient infrastructure. In collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers, we piloted a collaborative, risk-informed decision analysis method. From this experience, we summarize factors that either contribute to or detract from the application of scientific analysis in the agency's decision-making.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA11C..31L
- Keywords:
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- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 6324 Legislation and regulations;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUESDE: 6630 Workforce;
- PUBLIC ISSUES