International Financial Institutions Ask to Contribute to Climate Protection

The aim of this article is to show in which way international financial institutions (IFIs) can contribute to climate protection projects. The principles of IFIs’ project cycles are explained in the context of the new blending tool. The cooperation with other donors stands in the centre of EU project funding and the notion of leveraging allows to quantify the cooperative effect among different donors. The bulk of this article describes the most relevant IFIs and national development banks with an international focus: Green Climate Fund (GCF), European Investment Bank (EIB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), French Development Agency (AFD), German Development Bank (KfW), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). For all these IFIs, descriptions are provided and their main fields of actions identified. The procedure of application (the “project cycle”) is illustrated and an overview of their strategies is given. Thus, this article seeks to provide practical guidance on how to cooperate with IFIs and to direct funds into substantially valid and responsible climate projects.

Potentials of Augmented Reality in a BIM based building submission process

The digital transformation in the construction industry, which is also referred to as Construction 4.0, is gaining impact in recent years. BIM as the central point for model-based planning and communication is at the centre of this development. This paves the way for the implementation of further technologies, such as augmented reality (AR) or artificial intelligence (AI) in the construction process. However, the submission process currently receives little attention in the BIM project cycle, even though it has a significant impact on a building project. There is a huge potential for the application of BIM and AR in the building submission process. BIM allows partly automatic compliance checks to be performed. The BIM model and the results of these checks can be used as basis for the AR model. This paper investigates an application for AR in a BIM submission process. Here we show that especially the plan check process and hearings in the approval process can be improved and sped up by combining BIM and the visualization technology of AR. In this process, AR can support the building authority in checking the compliance with building regulations. Additionally, non-experts involved often have problems grasping the planned building project just based on the technical 2D plans. In this case, AR helps them to visualise the impact of the planned project and allows for better judgement. Use-cases are presented, showing strategies to improve the plan check process and assist the building authority as well as the persons involved, for both experts as well as non-experts. Finally, the requirements, technical implementations, and effects of an AR application for the plan check process are described. An AR-supported plan checking process can vastly improve the presentation of technical content. This leads to better understanding and more transparency for non-experts. Because AR is relatively easy to use, it might become ubiquitous not only to experts, but also to the general public.

Text Analysis of Project Completion Reports

Project Completion Reports (PCRs) are the main instrument through which different multilateral organizations measure the success of a project once it closes. PCRs are important for development effectiveness as they serve to understand achievements, failures, and challenges within the project cycle they can feed back into the design and execution of new projects. The aim of this paper is to introduce text analysis tools for the exploration of PCR documents. We describe and apply different text analysis tools to explore the content of a sample of PCRs. We seek to illustrate a way in which PCRs can be summarized and analyzed using innovative tools applied to a unique dataset. We believe that the methods presented in this investigation have numerous potential applications to different types of text documents routinely prepared within the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Risk factors and mitigation measures in public-private water sector partnerships: lessons from the Asutifi North District, Ghana

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are promoted as a practical option for developing countries to meet their water sector infrastructure gaps. Despite their appeal, PPP projects have been described as complex and challenging, and the water sector PPPs are particularly associated with high failure rates. Risk analysis and evaluations have been identified as critical to the success of PPPs. In this paper, we examine an on-going PPP arrangement for piped water supply in the Asutifi North District of Ghana under a Build, Operate, and Transfer arrangement. Safe Water Network will provide the supply systems and transfer ownership to the District Authority at the end of the contract. We reviewed key project documents to ascertain the measures that would minimize the likelihood of risk occurring during the project cycle. Of 11 risk factors, 7 were anticipated in the project documents. We recommend that project documents be reviewed and amended to address the unanticipated risks.

Highlights of ADB’s Cooperation with Civil Society Organizations 2020

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been supporting meaningful engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs) in delivering better development results. Partnerships with these CSOs help promote community participation and social inclusion throughout the project cycle of ADB-financed operations. In light of its enhanced commitment to CSO engagement, ADB approved in 2020 a new indicator for assessing civil society engagement. This report provides insights on ADB’s cooperation with CSOs in 2020 in terms of generating knowledge, tapping expertise, sharing good practices, and improving policy dialogues. It also features lessons and success stories of CSO contributions in Asia and the Pacific.

Micro-Hydropower in Nepal: Analysing the Project Process to Understand Drivers that Strengthen and Weaken Sustainability

Evaluating the sustainable operation of community-owned and community-operated renewable energy projects is complex. The development of a project often depends on the actions of diverse stakeholders, including the government, industry and communities. Throughout the project cycle, these interrelated actions impact the sustainability of the project. In this paper, the typical project cycle of a micro-hydropower plant in Nepal is used to demonstrate that key events throughout the project cycle affect a plant’s ability to operate sustainably. Through a critical analysis of the available literature, policy and project documentation and interviews with manufacturers, drivers that affect the sustainability of plants are found. Examples include weak specification of civil components during tendering, quality control issues during manufacture, poor quality of construction and trained operators leaving their position. Opportunities to minimise both the occurrence and the severity of threats to sustainability are identified. For the micro-hydropower industry in Nepal, recommendations are made for specific actions by the relevant stakeholders at appropriate moments in the project cycle. More broadly, the findings demonstrate that the complex nature of developing community energy projects requires a holistic consideration of the complete project process.

Methodical basis of formation of digital space performance of contractual construction works

The article searches for an appropriate methodology for the formation of methodological and formal analytical basis for the modernization of models of construction organization based on BIM models. The leading area of application of BIM-technologies in construction is the transformation of disparate graphic and tabular elements from the design and estimate documentation into a single system of info-graphic graphic modules, which are integrated by a single information retrieval system. However, in the realities of the domestic construction market and construction administration systems, BIM technologies remain an aid to the visual-graphic and analytical presentation of the content of a construction development project as an object of construction and investment. However, the strategic trend of this market is the formation of construction development as a single environment of the construction project and as a format of construction administration. Given such strategic dominants, there is a need to redirect and readjust the functional content and graph-analytical design of VIM-technologies to the peculiarities of preparation and organization of the construction development project cycle (BDP) – from promoting the initial investment product idea to the end of the development contract. BIM-technologies should no longer be considered solely as an additional tool for visualizing the progress of the project cycle. It is substantiated that the digital space of the construction industry (construction projects, construction organizations-participants) in the development of information and communication technologies acquires the characteristics of an alternative construction business, which should function in a certain transformed environment of construction development projects. Technologies directly related to design and construction (BIM, augmented reality, laser scanning, etc.) increase the efficiency of investment and construction projects, while digital data analysis systems contribute to a better understanding of construction market trends.

Exploring the ecological outcomes of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain using evidence from early-adopter jurisdictions in England

Net outcome-type biodiversity policies are proliferating globally as perceived mechanisms to reconcile economic development and conservation objectives. The UK government’s Environment Bill will mandate that most new developments in England demonstrate they deliver a biodiversity net gain (BNG) to receive planning permission, representing the most wide-ranging net outcome-type policy globally. However, as with many nascent net-outcome policies, the likely outcomes of mandatory BNG have not been explored empirically. We assemble all BNG assessments (accounting for ~1% of England’s annual housebuilding and other infrastructure) submitted from January-November 2020 in four early-adopter councils who are implementing mandatory No Net Loss or BNG requirements in advance of the national adoption of mandatory BNG, and analyse the aggregate habitat changes proposed. Our sample is associated with a 21% reduction in the area of non-urban habitats, compensated by commitments to deliver smaller areas of higher-quality habitats years later in the development project cycle. Eighty-seven percent of biodiversity units delivered in our sample come from habitats within or adjacent to the development footprint managed by the developers. However, we find that these gains fall within a governance gap whereby they risk being unenforceable; a challenge which is shared with other net outcome-type policies implemented internationally.

Organizing the network of regional centers “Sirius” to support talented children and peculiarities of the network training of teachers

The features of the activities of regional centers for identifying, supporting and developing the abilities and talents of children and youth, which are created taking into account the experience of the Talent and Success Foundation of the Sirius Educational Center (Sochi), are analyzed. The possibilities of transfer technologies for reproducing the model of talent development in children in the regions of Russia are analyzed according to the model of the Sirius educational center. The features of the organization of educational activities on the basis of regional network of resource centers of the federal project "Success of every child" of the national project "Education" are revealed. The problems of the legal foundations of creating regional centers are analyzed taking into account the experience of the Talent and Success educational fund. The organization of the activities of regional centers in the full project cycle is analyzed - the identification, support and development of abilities and talents among children and youth, monitoring for further development and the creation of infrastructure for the further development of educational programs for children and youth who have shown outstanding abilities. The network partnership with industrial and technological companies in the regions for the development of educational infrastructure is analyzed. The management structure of the Sirius network of regional centers is characterized, as well as the creation of an expert council to support regional centers.