National Infrastructure Investment Plan
South Africa faced a critical need to coordinate and accelerate a pipeline of viable infrastructure development to stimulate economic growth and address service delivery backlogs. With investment being fragmented across departments and spheres of government, a cohesive national strategy to attract and guide public and private funding was clearly lacking.
The Challenge
As part of the core team advising the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Melissa provided strategic advisory services to design and develop the country's overarching infrastructure investment framework.
Strategic Facilitation: Orchestrated inter-departmental collaboration to align priorities and define a unified infrastructure investment pipeline, together with implementation mechanisms.
Plan Architecture: Helped structure the Plan's pillars, focusing on catalytic projects with high socio-economic impact.
Governance Design: Advised on the institutional model required to implement the Plan, leading to the proposal for a dedicated coordination entity.
Structural Oversight: Facilitated in the final design and governance of the regulations for the Infrastructure Fund, which is a blended financing mechanism for catalytic infrastructure investment.
Our Role & Action
The Impact
The Infrastructure Investment Plan was approved by Cabinet in May 2020, providing a first-of-its-kind, coherent blueprint for national infrastructure development.
Directly led to the establishment of Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), a new entity tasked with driving the Plan's execution and "crowding in" private investment.
Resulted in the gazetting of new Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs), unlocking streamlined processes and priority status for vital initiatives across the country, in the major service sectors, including water and sanitation, energy, transportation, human settlements and agriculture.
Resulted in the development and gazetting of the regulations for the Infrastructure Development Act.
