Forthcoming book: Sustainable Public Procurement of Infrastructure and Human Rights

This innovative book addresses the links between sustainability and human rights in the context of infrastructure projects and contributes to cover the human rights gap in the different stages of the public procurement process to deliver on infrastructure and services. 

Sapiens lead researcher Prof. Olga Martin-Ortega and ESR Laura Treviño-Lozano co-edited forthcoming book on Sustainable Public Procurement of Infrastructure and Human Rights: Beyond Building Green (Edward Elgar Spring 2023). 

This book brings together the contributions from leading scholars and legal practitioners. It addresses a gap in the literature on the role of human rights in infrastructure development, particular focus is given to highly complex contracts, such as public-private partnerships (PPPs). Chapters analyse key human rights issues across the life cycle of projects using case studies that investigate communities, service users and workers in public procurement supply chains as human rights holders.

Further, the book explores the issues facing women as different role-players – namely as workers, service users, decision-makers and government suppliers. Case studies include procurement of healthcare infrastructure and megasporting events. The editors and authors also propose solutions and new ways forward in the advancement of the sustainable public procurement agenda, both for developed and developing countries, to deliver infrastructure that brings social return without harming human rights.

Developing more inclusive approaches to infrastructure that address rightsholders and stakeholders – including communities, workers, service users, and particularly women – this book will be a thought-provoking resource for scholars and students, as well as for human rights lawyers, advocates and policy makers alike.

The volume includes contributions of leading experts in the field George Nwangwu, Cristina Contreras, Miriam Mbah and Ama Eyo, Geo Quinot, Josua Loots, Annabel Short, Johanna Hoekstra and Luis Felipe Yanes.

 

The book considers the importance of sustainability in infrastructure procurement from a wide range of perspectives, examining the gaps in sustainable procurement, the different modalities of infrastructure procurement, different sectors (economic infrastructure, sports and health), and the human rights risks inherent in infrastructure procurement.

The book in particular, considers the involvement of the private sector and donors in the provision of infrastructure, highlighting how the private sector and donor inputs can be harnessed to improve sustainability and mitigate human rights risks in infrastructure procurement.

The book considers practical ways to mitigate human rights risks in infrastructure procurement, focusing on risk assessment, a gendered analysis and a developmental perspective. In the context of Covid-19 recovery and meeting the Sustainable development goals, the book could not be more timely, needed and welcome.

Prof. Sope Williams-Elegbe, Professor and Head of Department of Mercantile Law, and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit, Stellenbosch University.

Written by Laura Treviño Lozano

Laura Treviño Lozano conducts her research at University of Greenwich on the different ways in which human rights and social objectives can and should be pursued in public procurement. With a multidisciplinary background, Laura holds a Bachelors in Law and undertook post-graduate studies on human rights at Universidad Castilla La Mancha, international comparative studies at Science Po, and an MSc in development studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She held positions as researcher, advisor, and director of the first Business and Human Rights Programme in Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission. Her work focused on building capacities, policy advice, and research of business-related abuses against human rights, including those deriving from public contracts in education, health, mining, and infrastructure sectors.

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