Sustainable Public Procurement of Infrastructure and Human Rights: Beyond Building Green (“Sustainable Public Procurement”) tackles a critical blind spot in infrastructure development: the neglect of human rights during public procurement processes. This book argues that the current focus on “building green” often overlooks the social impact of infrastructure projects. While ensuring environmental sustainability in infrastructure is crucial, it’s equally important to guarantee that these projects are built with respect for human rights throughout their entire life cycles.
The book is divided into four parts with a total of ten chapters. Except for the first and last chapters, which are written by the editors, each chapter is authored by a different expert or pair of experts in fields such as human rights and procurement. A “Contributors” section in the front matter lists the credentials of each author.
A Gap in Sustainability
The book demonstrates a significant gap in our understanding of sustainable infrastructure development. Traditionally, the focus has been on environmental sustainability—constructing buildings and facilities with minimal environmental impact. However, the editors argue that this approach is incomplete.
Public procurement, the process by which governments acquire goods and services, plays a central role in infrastructure development. The authors highlight the potential human rights violations that can occur across various stages of the public procurement process. These violations can affect a wide range of stakeholders, including local communities displaced by construction, workers facing exploitation, and citizens denied access to essential services due to poorly designed projects.
Actionable Solutions and Vulnerable Groups
The book does not merely identify the problem; it also proposes solutions. Each chapter delves into specific aspects of human rights and infrastructure procurement, offering practical guidance for policymakers and practitioners. For instance, the book advocates for the use of Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) as a tool to identify and mitigate potential human rights risks during the planning stages of a project.
Furthermore, Sustainable Public Procurement shines a light on the importance of considering the perspectives of vulnerable groups throughout the process. A dedicated chapter focuses on the need for gender equality in infrastructure development. Women are often disproportionately impacted by infrastructure projects, both positively and negatively. The book emphasizes the need to actively include women in decision-making processes and ensure that infrastructure projects meet the specific needs of women as service users and workers. Another chapter explores the challenges that workers in the construction industry face, particularly in the context of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
PPPs: Balancing Efficiency with Human Rights
The public procurement process often involves large sums of money and complex partnerships, including PPPs. PPPs are a growing trend in infrastructure development. While PPPs can offer benefits like increased efficiency and access to private sector expertise, Sustainable Public Procurement acknowledges the challenges they pose in ensuring human rights are protected. The complex contractual frameworks governing PPPs can sometimes obscure accountability for violations of human rights. The book delves into these challenges and explores ways to navigate them, advocating for stronger accountability mechanisms and a clearer allocation of responsibility between public and private entities involved in PPPs.
Case Studies, Moving Forward, and Additional Book Elements
The book does not shy away from showcasing real-world examples of the important issues it seeks to address. One chapter presents an interesting and detailed case study of the procurement process for South Africa’s 2010 World Cup infrastructure. The case highlights both the potential benefits and pitfalls of mega sporting event projects, demonstrating how human rights considerations can be integrated into the procurement process.
The last chapter, authored by the editors, offers a roadmap for moving forward. Martin-Ortega and Treviño-Lozano outline key recommendations, urging policymakers and practitioners to prioritize a human rights-based approach to public procurement. This includes fostering transparency and accountability throughout the process, ensuring effective remedies for human rights violations, and integrating human rights considerations into project evaluation methods.
Finally, Sustainable Public Procurement includes a substantial index. At twenty-one pages, the index is comprehensive, providing a detailed roadmap to the book’s content. Its generous length ensures that virtually every significant topic is included, and the subentries offer nuanced and intuitive breakdowns of complex subjects. Although it contains few entries for abbreviations, a list of acronyms in the front matter fills that gap and serves as a handy reference, allowing for smooth navigation through the text. Overall, the index is a worthy enhancement to this book for both casual readers and serious researchers.
A Valuable Resource
Sustainable Public Procurement of Infrastructure and Human Rights is a timely and valuable resource for a wide range of audiences. Scholars and students will find it to be a comprehensive analysis of the human rights dimensions of infrastructure procurement, an area that needs more useful literature like this. Policymakers and legal professionals will benefit from the practical guidance and recommendations for developing and implementing human rights-based procurement policies. Human rights NGOs and advocates will gain valuable insights and tools for holding governments and private companies accountable for human rights violations in infrastructure projects.
Overall, this book offers a compelling argument for a more holistic approach to infrastructure development. By integrating human rights considerations into public procurement practices, we can ensure that infrastructure projects contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
