Urban Infrastructure and Social Conflict in Latin America

摘要

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face the urgent need to increase investments in infrastructure by 5% of its GDP (USD 250 billion) to satisfy current and future infrastructure needs. Many of these investments occur in urban areas, since LAC is the world's most urbanized region with 90% of its population expected to be living in cities by 2050. Yet, infrastructure projects may also have negative impacts. Neglecting social and environmental issues usually entails high risks, and not addressing the worries and grievances of stakeholder leads to tensions which are often aggravated by lack of communication and trust. These conflicts can cause delays, cost overruns, and eventually project cancellations. Our analysis is based on structured interviews with 32 sustainability officers from major infrastructure firms and evaluations of 200 conflict-affected infrastructure projects in LAC across multiple sectors. It evaluated the extent to which infrastructure projects have been affected by conflicts, their material implications for the companies and the strategies in dealing with conflicts. This paper focuses on the nature of conflicts and how they differ between urban and rural settings.