Chapter 1. General Introduction

In 2015, members of the United Nations adopted the 2030 agenda on 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG s), and developing quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including public infrastructure, was one of the goals to be achieved by 2030. A recent (May 2024) evaluation of the progress on the SDG s revealed limited success in achieving the objectives of the 2030 agenda. The assessed targets for SDG 9 reveal that only 30% of them are on track or have been achieved, which falls short of the 2030 target values. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the objective of this book, which is underpinned by the lack of progress in achieving targets of the 2030 agenda on SDG (9). More specifically, the chapter discusses challenges faced by emerging economies but not limited to poor maintenance of existing infrastructure, limited participation of trained construction professionals, limited maintenance budget and lack of government capacity to maintain government office buildings. The chapter brings forth key studies that have attempted to address the highlighted maintenance issues, along with the methodology adopted – the Delphi method – to determine and validate sustainable maintenance strategies for government office buildings in emerging economies.