Target 9.a: Sustainable infrastructure in developing countries
Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
The target is framed as financial and technical support, which is mostly official development finance from governments and multilateral banks. Private capital is nonetheless part of the picture. The Global Infrastructure Hub reports private infrastructure investment in low and middle income countries is only about a quarter of the global private total and fell 28 percent in 2020. The IEA finds energy investment in Africa one-third below 2015 levels, with Africa at 2 percent of clean energy investment. We found no shareholder resolution specific to this target. Listed banks, infrastructure funds, utilities and engineering firms help at the margin by choosing to deploy capital and technology in these markets. The outcome rests with governments and multilateral lenders.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Unlocking private investment in infrastructure in developing countries, Global Infrastructure Hub, 2022-04-29
- World Energy Investment 2025, Executive summary, International Energy Agency, 2025
- SDG investment is growing, but too slowly: The investment gap is now $4 trillion, up from $2.5 in 2015, UNCTAD, 2023-09-14
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. No shareholder advocacy located that is specific to sustainable infrastructure in developing countries. The Equator Principles search returned only academic papers, the World Bank PPP library, BankTrack and IFC material, none of it a shareholder proposal, investor letter or coalition engagement aimed at a company on this target. The As You Sow resolutions tracker was fetched and confirmed to hold nothing on infrastructure investment in developing countries. Adoption of the Equator Principles by banks is bank policy rather than a documented investor-led engagement, and no source was found tying it to Rule 14a-8 filings or coalition letters. Search budget was exhausted before further angles (development finance institutions, just transition in emerging markets) could be tested.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.