A long-term strategic vision for infrastructure projects provides clarity on a project’s objectives and ensures that investment plans are financially sustainable. Long-term infrastructure plans help governments to align projects to policy objectives such as climate change mitigation, gender equality, human rights and regional development, increasing their joint impact and enhancing the projects’ benefits. However, for long-term planning to be effective, it should define a transparent, coherent and accountable institutional framework which entrusts the relevant institutions and levels of government with clear and consistent mandates, ample decision-making powers, and the right skills and competencies (OECD, 2020).

Public infrastructure projects are gateways for social and economic growth. When deciding which projects to undertake, governments should also consider their value for money, which entails the optimal combination of quality, quantity, features and costs, calculated over the project’s lifetime. Moreover, projects need to be cost-effective and affordable for both the government and the end-user. To ensure this, many countries have frameworks with clear criteria and methodologies for assessing projects’ value for money and defined roles for each stakeholder involved in the process. These frameworks consider which costs should be assessed to determine a project’s affordability, such as construction, maintenance, operation and monitoring expenses.

The life cycle of an infrastructure project includes its planning, prioritisation and funding, design, procurement, construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. A life cycle perspective in infrastructure procurement means that all these stages are considered when making procurement decisions. Considerations should also include the project's impact on other objectives, such as environmental protection or gender equality, over its entire lifespan. Such a perspective can lead to more sustainable, inclusive and cost-effective infrastructure decisions. The OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Infrastructure highlights that contracting authorities must carefully evaluate the optimal risk allocation and use value for money analytical tools to compare assessments of service delivery options throughout the project's life cycle. In addition, contracting authorities can support their procurement officials to make use of the whole life cycle of infrastructure projects to achieve important complementary objectives such as inclusion, responsible business conduct or environmental goals.

Open, inclusive and transparent infrastructure projects play a pivotal role in facilitating stakeholder participation, but also in having competitive procurement process to achieve projects’ desired objectives. When stakeholders see their input has a tangible impact on decisions, such as in the development of infrastructure plans, this fortifies their trust, creating a positive cycle of increased and improved participation. This trust cultivates a sense of ownership among stakeholders, underlining the importance of their voices (OECD, 2022). Likewise, allowing the participation of foreign or regional firms from outside the project area, deterring bid-rigging (i.e. contractors agreeing in advance who will win the bid) and promoting e-procurement can all help create an open and inclusive projects. To encourage competitive procurement processes that provide an equal opportunity to bidders of all sizes, governments can also streamline administrative procedures, facilitate subcontracting opportunities and enable small companies to participate in contracts that exceed their budgets.