SDG 9: Industry innovation and infrastructure

Without basic transport infrastructure, many of the world’s least developed countries face serious challenges, particularly in meeting the sustainable development goals (SDGs) set out by the UN Council. SDG 9 focusses on building resilient infrastructure, which will promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and innovation. This is why SDG 9 is one of the most important of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Resilient infrastructures such as roads, railways, and mobile phone networks act as the veins and arteries of any country, facilitating communication, transporting people and goods and ensuring general accessibility. Properly developed transport and communication infrastructure ultimately leads to a more developed country, economy and society.

In developing countries like Uganda, the annual occurrence of the rainy season is enough to wash away many of the dirt roads, leaving millions of people cut off and sometimes dangerously isolated. We worked with a UN agency to create a video, for a local audience, that highlighted the importance of building new roads in Uganda. When documenting infrastructure projects, such as road building, it can be challenging to make it interesting.

Video tends to work as a better medium for this subject than photography as it tells more of a story. Making use of visual storytelling techniques, such as drones and animation, will create more interesting and varied footage, which in turn should lead to higher levels of engagement from the audience. However, the focus of the story should ultimately be on the challenges faced by the lack of infrastructure and the benefits improved infrastructure could bring.

In the run up to the first UN summit on the SDGs on 24th and 25th September, we are publishing a daily blog on how we help organisations to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Check out our blogs here.