Social infrastructure has endured a long period of neglect in most developed and emerging countries, with chronic underinvestment exposed by the coronavirus crisis 2020. Private sector investment in social infrastructure has widely fallen back over the last decade – this in contrast to economic infrastructure. One of the outcomes of the last global (financial) crisis 2007/08 was a slow revival of economic infrastructure policies, and a growing involvement of institutional investors. This is the first, more systematic account of social infrastructure investment from an international perspective, leading to several key conclusions. The public sector will remain the dominant funding and financing source. Nonetheless, much more private capital could flow with greater clarity on social assets and projects, given their very diverse specific characteristics. There are various investment strategies that can realistically be improved and expanded. Sustainability, impact and SDG investing open a new door for asset owners.

After a long period of decay and neglect in many countries, policy makers are rediscovering the significance of good infrastructure for economic and social progress. At the same time, investing in infrastructure has become increasingly popular with institutional investors since the mid-2000s. The current, intensifying debates mostly focus on economic infrastructure, and the bulk of the money flows into transport assets such as airports or railways, energy networks and water utilities, and increasingly into renewable energy. In contrast, investment in social infrastructure has received little attention from both politicians and investors, at least so far, despite growing concerns by the public.

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