Humanising Prosperity
3 years, 5 months, 14 days, 22 hours
7 February 2026
Our focus must be people, not assets; quality of life, not GDP growth; shared future, not conflict.
'Let us not be remembered as the generation that built the most, but as the generation that cared the most.'
These words, from Dr Eyüp Vural Audin, Chairman of the Istanbul PPP Center of Excellence, captured the essence of the conversation I was privileged to be joining at the 10th Istanbul PPP Week, last week.
It was remarkable enough that an industry that traditionally has been associated with hard metrics like cost, efficiency and rate of return should be brought together under the banner 'Humanising prosperity'.
But it was not just a label. Through the week there was a relentlessness to the message that our focus must be people, not assets; quality of life, not GDP growth; shared future, not conflict.
All this at a time when, to quote Ziad-Alexandre Hayek, President of the World Association of PPP Units and Professionals: 'The gap between infrastructure ambition and delivery has never been wider, nor the consequences of that gap more severe’. So true. And that might easily lead us to build, build, build, but as Eyüp also said: 'If prosperity is not ‘humanised', it becomes a hollow victory.'
And what does humanised mean, when we think about climate? I can do no better than quote Ziad again: 'We cannot allow the political retreat on climate to become an excuse for inaction. People’s wellbeing should not be sacrificed on the altar of nationalism. Infrastructure decisions made today will shape emissions profiles for half a century. Sustainability cannot be an optional add-on or a premium tier of infrastructure. It must be the baseline standard for every project.'
Well said.