The ideation and genesis of the South American Infrastructure Observatory
September 2025
The physical integration of South America has been, for decades, a shared aspiration among governments, multilateral organizations, and communities across the region. Beyond individual projects, what has evolved is a new way of thinking about infrastructure—as a tool for cohesion, sustainability, and integration. In this context, the South American Infrastructure Observatory emerges as a concrete, coordinated, and strategic response.
Its genesis can be traced back to two key precedents that marked milestones in regional planning:
On one hand, GEOSUR, created in 2007 by CAF and the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), offered a pioneering geospatial platform that democratized access to maps, project visualizations, and territorial analysis tools across Latin America and the Caribbean. It was an early commitment to transparency and technical interoperability.
On the other hand, COSIPLAN, established in 2009 as part of UNASUR, integrated the IIRSA Initiative as its technical forum and promoted regional physical integration planning with a strategic, social, and environmental lens. Its institutional and methodological legacy remains present in the principles that now guide the Observatory.
These two efforts laid the foundation for a new phase. With the momentum of the Brasilia Consensus, signed by twelve countries in 2023, the need for a platform that not only plans but also monitors, coordinates, and communicates was solidified.
The Infrastructure Observatory is the result of this collaborative and strategic process, developed through multiple meetings of the Infrastructure and Transport Network under the Brasilia Consensus.
From its early mentions as a technical need to its consolidation as a regional tool, the Observatory represents a key advancement in physical and digital connectivity projects across the region.
The Observatory’s proposal was initially presented at the VII Meeting of the Network, held in October 2024, where there were also exchanges on the methodology for prioritizing projects.
Months later, at the First High-Level Meeting of the Network, held in Bogotá in December 2024, member countries defined the Observatory’s technical team and approved the platform’s implementation, with support from the Alliance for Latin America and the Caribbean Integration and Development (ILAT) and regional multilateral banks: the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and the Development Bank of the River Plate Basin (FONPLATA).
More than just a technical tool, the Observatory represents a paradigm shift. It is no longer just about infrastructure works, but about responding to contemporary challenges: connectivity, resilience, sustainability, and citizen participation.