Infrastructure to grow and develop

What is infrastructure? Infrastructure refers to the investment made by governments into building new sewers, roads, wind farms, telecommunications networks and ports by both the private and the public sector.

The economy needs infrastructure to grow. Roads are required to transport food and people. Without road infrastructure, this becomes harder to accomplish, resulting in some areas being deprived of food or water. Also, for electricity to reach all households, there needs to be an infrastructure in place with power plants, power distribution systems, and electric grids. Likewise, for the internet to be available to all citizens, there must be an infrastructure that supports the service distribution. In turn, areas with electricity and internet are better prepared to provide other types of services; education, health, and entertainment, to name a few.

As proposed by the UN, one of the main targets for this goal is to "upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable."

The proposal is to include greater adoption of clean and environmentally friendly technologies and industrial processes. But how can governments build environmentally sound infrastructure that benefits economic growth and sustainability? One clear option is to enhance scientific research and support domestic technology development. And this can start from a very early age.

More and more schools are looking into including coding, food science, agriculture, and bio-technologies in their curriculum. Estonia introduced coding in primary schools in 2012, and the UK followed suit last year. In the United States, Google and Microsoft support initiatives such as Code. org and the "Hour of Code", helping students dab into the world of coding.