After watching the video with your students, ask them the following questions:
Infrastructure is a key component of a functioning economy and is fundamental to the livelihoods of billions of people throughout the world. It has long been recognised that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education, require investments in infrastructure.
The term “infrastructure” refers to structures, systems and facilities serving the economy of a business, industry, country, city, town or other area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function. The term is typically used in relation to the existence or condition of costly “technical structures” such as roads, bridges, tunnels or other constructed facilities such as loading docks, cold storage chambers, electrical capacity, fuel tanks, cranes, overhead clearances, or components of water supply, sewers, electrical grids and telecommunications. Infrastructure thus comprises improvements that require significant expense to develop or install, but that return an important value over time. There are various types of infrastructure:
Investments in infrastructure — transport, irrigation, energy, and information and communication technology — are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries:
With the dramatic rise in natural disasters caused by the negative impacts of climate change, the importance of sustainable and resilient infrastructure is becoming increasingly clear to cities, financers and project developers around the world. Although 75 percent of the infrastructure that needs to be in place by 2050 does not exist today, momentum is building in relation to international objectives such as the SDGs, and the importance of integrating best practice into infrastructure design has never been greater.
Industrialisation refers to the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one, involving the extensive reorganisation of an economy for the purposes of manufacturing.
The first Industrial Revolution took place between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries in certain parts of Europe and North America. During this period, many people abandoned agricultural work in order to take higher-paid jobs in factories in towns and cities.
The second Industrial Revolution refers to changes in the mid-19th century, following the refinement of the steam engine, the invention of the internal combustion engine, the harnessing of electricity, and the construction of canals, railways and electric power lines. The invention of the assembly line gave the phase further momentum, and coal mines, steelworks and textile factories replaced homes as the place of work.
The term “inclusive industrialisation” refers to industrial development that includes all countries and all peoples, and offers equal opportunities and an equitable distribution of the benefits of industrialisation to all stakeholders. The term “sustainable industrialisation” addresses the need to decouple the prosperity generated from industrial activities from excessive natural resource use and negative environmental impacts.
In general, industrialisation is part of a process where people adopt easier and cheaper ways to make things. Using better technology, it becomes possible to produce more goods in a shorter time, and a single individual can produce more things. Since industrialisation, people have also done more specialised jobs.
The impact of industry on poverty eradication, environmental sustainability and food security is ultimately defined by the pattern of industrialisation that a country chooses to follow:
A long-term strategy can put into place a framework for stable industry. It can also create incentives for investments in the necessary education, infrastructure, product quality, agribusiness solutions, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 60 to 70 percent of jobs in most OECD countries, with a particularly large share in Italy and Japan and a relatively smaller share in the United States. They also account for a disproportionately large share of new jobs. Some evidence also points to the importance of age, rather than size, in job creation: recently established firms generate more than their share of employment. However:
Small and medium-sized enterprises face the following specific problems:
Many countries have programmes to support SMEs. A quarter of all public support programmes reported to the OECD target SMEs primarily. Germany, Iceland, Japan and New Zealand dedicate more than 50 percent of their entire public support programmes to SMEs. However, governments need to intensify their efforts to disseminate information, eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, and make programmes more responsive to the changing needs of SMEs.
Between 30 and 60 percent of SMEs can be characterised as innovative. Innovative SMEs tend to be market driven rather than research driven, and quicker to respond to new opportunities than large firms. They play a key role in pioneering and developing new markets.
However, governments need to reduce uncertainties in the tax, regulatory and macroeconomic environment; ensure that business framework conditions do not impact unfavourably on the risk/reward ratio; and encourage the mobility of human resources and markets for specialised services. Although important for the economy as a whole, such actions will be of particular benefit to SMEs.
To ensure the success of SMEs, the following should be borne in mind:
The main barriers to the development of high-growth SMEs are market failures in capital markets; government regulations; indirect labour costs; lack of access to foreign markets; and difficulties in recruiting qualified staff and skilled workers.
Small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women are growing at a faster rate than the economy as a whole in several countries, making possible the capitalisation of the skills of educated and trained women, whose advancement might otherwise be blocked by the “glass ceiling”. The increased flexibility inherent in owning one’s own business allows women to contribute to the household income while balancing work and family responsibilities.
Environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) protect the environment; are less polluting; use resources in a more sustainable manner; result in higher rates of product and waste recycling; and involve the handling of residual wastes in a more acceptable manner than the technologies they substitute. In the context of pollution, ESTs generate little or no waste. In addition, they are not simply individual technologies, but integrated systems that include know-how, procedures, goods, services and equipment, as well as organisational and managerial procedures. This implies that when discussing the transfer of technologies, it is also important to address the human resources development and local capacity building aspects of technology choices, including gender-relevant aspects. At the same time, ESTs should be compatible with nationally determined socioeconomic, cultural and environmental priorities.
Favourable access to, and the transfer of, ESTs, in particular to developing countries, should be facilitated by supportive measures that promote technology cooperation. This support should also enable the transfer of the necessary technological know-how and build economic, technical and managerial capacities for the efficient use and further development of the transferred technology. Technology cooperation involves joint efforts by enterprises and governments — that is, by both the suppliers and recipients of the technology. Successful long-term partnerships for technology cooperation require ongoing systematic training and capacity building at all levels.
The following should be borne in mind in relation to the successful promotion of ESTs:
The main activities to promote ESTs should include:
One role of the sciences should be to provide information to better enable the formulation and selection of environment and development policies. It is therefore essential to enhance scientific understanding, improve long-term scientific assessments, strengthen scientific capacities in all countries and ensure that the sciences are responsive to emerging needs.
Scientific knowledge is growing in areas such as climate change, resource consumption, demographic trends and environmental degradation. These and other areas need to be taken into account when working out long-term strategies for development. A better understanding of land, oceans, atmosphere and their interlocking water, nutrient and biogeochemical cycles and energy flows is essential if a more accurate estimate is to be provided of the carrying capacity of the Earth and its resilience to the stresses placed on it by human activities. This can be achieved through the application of modern, effective and efficient tools, such as remote-sensing devices, robotic monitoring instruments and computing and modelling capabilities.
The sciences should continue to play a role in improving the efficiency of resource utilisation and in identifying new development practices, resources and alternatives, including the less intensive utilisation of energy in industry, agriculture, and transportation.
Through scientific assessments, scientific knowledge should be applied to articulate and support the goals of sustainable development. Such assessments should contribute to the decision-making process, and to the interactions between the sciences and policy making. An increase in scientific capacities and capabilities is also required. It is particularly important for scientists from developing countries to participate fully in international scientific research programmes that address the global problems of environment and development, so that all countries are able to participate on an equal footing in the related negotiations. Faced with the threat of irreversible damage to the environment, lack of scientific understanding should not be used as an excuse for postponing action. The precautionary approach should be the basis for policies related to complex systems that are not yet fully understood, and the consequences of which cannot yet be predicted.
In this context, the role of science in promoting sustainable development requires strong support in four main areas:
A very important infrastructure project involving the construction of a cross-border highway is currently under way. However, during the environmental impact assessment, a significant omission was made. A 600-year-old oak tree standing on the planned route of the new highway was not recorded. The tree is over 40 metres tall and has a circumference of over 7 metres. It is one of only a few trees of this size in the country. In addition to its exceptional natural value, the tree is of unique importance, venerated by the local population and used as the focus of local celebrations.
Ask students to explain their views. Are there any conflicts of interest between economic development and environmental protection? How can infrastructure projects be made greener and more sustainable?
The presentations can be made either during a lesson, or at a special occasion such as Earth Day or a dedicated school event.
Potential industries might include:
(Proposed duration: one lesson)
After the brainstorming, students might be asked to undertake research based on the ideas in the research section.
Students should work either individually or in groups.
After two weeks, ask your students to present the results (using PowerPoint, for example). Organise a class discussion based on questions such as: Which type of industry would be the best choice? Have any types of industry been omitted? How many of your students would/would not like to work in that industry?
Proposed duration of the presentation/discussion: one or two lessons, depending on the number of presentations prepared.
Watch the video with your students and initiate a discussion on:
Proposed duration: two lessons.
After watching the video with your students, ask them the following questions:
(Discussion duration: one to two lessons.)
