Working Groups
CICA Working Groups gather multidisciplinary international experts from our construction federations and companies to discuss specific topics and issues.
These groups are a collaborative platform for exchanges, ideas and works. CICA regularly invites guests to participate to CICA works to make presentations on a particular subject, be it through informal exchanges or round tables, organized either by CICA or a member.
How does it work?
Each WG is led by a Chairman that supervises and monitors the meetings.
WG members meet generally once a month or once every three months via Zoom or Teams.
The discussions are run in English.
All the relevant documents of the WG are shared and stored in a collaborative Dropbox.
Different WGs can collaborate together.
What are the objectives?
The inputs of the WGs are presented twice a year during CICA’s General Assemblies.
WGs usually release Position Papers related to their core subject of work. These Position Papers are presented to relevant stakeholders (Multilateral Development Banks, National and International Federations, etc) which can give rise to real change.
Who can participate?
CICA’s Working Groups are open to all members, federations and companies working with CICA.
Paricipation in several groups is possible
CICA’s Working Groups
Choose your Working Group and start changing the industry
The Health & Safety working group was officially launched in June, 2020. The working group is chaired by Nir Yanushevsky and co-chaired by Ziv Lazar, respectively Specialist in Public Sector and Contractual Construction, and Head of Data and Economics for the Israeli Association Builders.
Health and safety on the worksites are daily concerns for contractors, and should not be seen as a burden, like it is mostly nowadays, but as a source of increased revenues. Indeed, a change in worksites organization can lead to an increased productivity. The current pandemic stressed out even more the need of a Health & Safety working group, in view of the consequences this health crisis has on the construction sector.
The current axes of work are the following:
- Select countries where the safety improvements have been the most significant;
- Study how countries performing less can adopt these improvements;
- Establish different case studies and identify best practices;
- Contribute to the elaboration of a common data base, to use the same measures all over the world;
- Bring in a technological approach to the Health & Safety issue.
The CICA Working Group on Long-Term Infrastructure Financing was created in response to growing global interest in sustainable infrastructure funding. Its mission is to address the significant worldwide infrastructure gap—estimated at USD 2.6 trillion per year for trade infrastructure and USD 1.6 trillion for social infrastructure—and to promote solutions that stimulate long-term investment.
The group focuses on:
Identifying conditions needed to unlock long-term financing
Sharing industry proposals and expertise
Advocating for CICA’s recommendations at national and regional levels
Under the leadership of Fernando Lago, the WG meets virtually, bringring together experts from CICA member associations in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia, and remains open to new participants.
To help close the growing infrastructure gap, the WG promotes stronger use of PPP (Public-Private Participation) systems and aims to:
Strengthen collaboration with MDBs, academia, and the private sector
Improve the perception and effectiveness of PPPs
Develop innovative risk-mitigation approaches
Encourage the treatment of infrastructure as an asset class, open to wider investment
Since PPP investment has declined since 2013, the WG highlights key actions such as improving risk allocation, expanding project pipelines in emerging markets, ensuring fair adjustments to pandemic-affected contracts, and increasing access to performance data.
This working group is managed by Michel DEMARRE, former Director General of SEFI and Vice-president of the Europe – International Commission of the French Federation of Public Works (FNTP), Past President of European International Contractors (EIC).
The absence of a pipeline of infrastructure projects in the developing and emerging countries and the too many projects that fail are due to the lack of good preparation of the projects.
In order to remedy this situation, CICA has been working on the good preparation of the projects since 2004 and proposes to implement the concept of “Well Prepared Project” that was introduced in November 2009 at the Multilateral Development Banks’ Heads of Procurement meeting in Thessaloniki.
The concept of Well Prepared Project was then successfully reintroduced in the recommendations of the G20 in Cannes in 2011.
The Well Prepared Project concept clearly establishes the requirements for a successful project in terms of quality of the works, including sustainability and acceptability aspects, as well as bankability and respect of budgets and schedules.
The objective of the Well Prepared Project working group would be to provide a set of recommendations or guidelines for countries and institutions (notably the Multilateral Development Banks and Development Finance Institutions) involved in infrastructure investment in the developing and emerging world. These recommendations will aim to improve the quality of preparation and implementation of projects. The first application of the concept of Well Prepared Project in the context of this CICA working group is the road sector. CICA is currently engaged in discussions and works jointly with the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and the World Road Association (PIARC). From July 1st 2022, Michel DEMARRE will chair PIARC’s taskforce on Well Prepared Projects in Low and Middle-Income Countries.
The Working Group on Construction Contracts and MDBs is chaired by Alex Wagemann and Richard Touroude.
It focuses on improving the contractual conditions of the engineering and construction standards. Although the contracting standards are suitable options for the development of relevant projects, these standards continue with a traditional thinking. They do not necessarily incorporate collaborative approaches, do not take into consideration clearly the promotion of technologies that improve productivity, and in particular, do not always consider in depth the vision of the contractors.
In this context emerges the idea of developing a working group, focused on improving the contractual conditions of the engineering and construction standards. The basic objectives of this new group are to:
– Formally introduce the contractors’ vision in the developments and reviews of the standards mostly used in the industry;
– Promote ideas that go beyond traditional procurement.
Concerning the MDBs, the focus is on following up the evolutions related to Procurement policies; Environmental, Social, Health and Safety (ESHS) requirements; capacity strengthening; Value for Money decision-making; International Competitive Bidding; and Integrity and fight against corruption.
CICA organizes construction sector missions to MDBs headquarters as well as regular meetings with Heads of Procurement. Indeed, since 2005, CICA, together with the European International Contractors (EIC) and the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), has been a partner in the successive consultative working groups set up by the World Bank in the context of its Procurement Reform.
The working group on Anti-Corruption and Integrity is an ad hoc working group which aims at elaborating a CICA anti-corruption policy. The group is chaired by Sergio Torretti, former President of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC).
CICA aims at publishing an encompassing view on how to prevent corruption both, on the contractor’s and the client’s side.
The CICA statement considers the following elements:
1) Legal aspects
2) Governance
3) Leadership and training
4) Technology
The combination of these concepts seeks to increase trust and integrity, generating real progress in the fight against corruption.
CICA working group Construction 5.0. is chaired by Demet Demirer, member of the Turkish Contractors’ Associations.
Construction 5.0 aims at promoting the alignment of technological and digital innovations for the construction sector with the societal dimension under the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
Construction 5.0 is the merger of the previous Construction 4.0 and Sustainable Construction Working Groups.
4.0 implied technologies such as BIM, drones, robots and Artificial Intelligence including Big Data and Augmented Reality. The 5.0 dimension adds the social aspect of digitalization including commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by aligning for example the industry’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Objective of the new WG Construction 5.0 for the next year shall be to elaborate concrete recommendations/action plan for the construction sector on best practices for sustainable construction and innovation (Construction 4.0). The objective would be to define opportunity windows mainly around CO2 reduction and reduced energy consumption from a contractors’ perspective (e.g. recycling framework, investment portfolios allowing to reduce carbon emissions etc.). The concrete scope of action and the related KPIs allowing to measure the influence and impact of the construction sector in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shall be defined for the next 2 years. The Construction 4.0 dimension is complementary to sustainable construction and vice-versa as new and digital technologies will enable to achieve sustainable construction objectives. The use of robotization, Artificial Intelligence, including Big Data and Augmented Reality is expected to enhance the ability to monitor construction projects and to improve the performance of the construction industry towards delivering sustainable and smart buildings/infrastructure.
The Housing working group was officially launched in May 2022, and it is chaired by Mr. Jorge Alberto Torres Vallejo, Director of Economic studies and information at the Colombian Chamber of Construction – CAMACOL.
A decent place to live is one of the most prominent necessities of humankind, and it was made even clearer during the COVID19 pandemic. However, public and private sectors face challenges providing high quality homes and, unfortunately, slums flourish all around the globe.
Main topics defined for the group’s agenda
- Affordable housing
- Demographic transition
- Actions for sustainability
- Urban planning
- Tax regimes
Be part of the Construction
Worldwide Organization
CICA is the world’s largest, most representative organization for the construction industry. It gathers and defends the concerns of the construction industry worldwide. CICA has unrivalled authority in promoting rules to improve the conduct of the construction business across borders.
CICA’s privileged links with major intergovernmental organizations and international financial institutions allow CICA to effectively represent the interests of its members for developing and industrialized countries taking into account the interests of both business providers and users.
