Value Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are targets for global development adopted in September 2015, set to be achieved by 2030. SDG 1 is clear: By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere. The proportion of the world's population in extreme poverty declined from almost everyone two centuries ago to below 10% in 2015. Projections by Crespo Cuaresma et al. published in Nature in 2108 show that the number of people in extreme poverty will fall to about 450 million people by 2030. To fully eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere may be equivalent to saving approximately US$250 billion annually which is less than 0.3% of the world gross domestic product (GDP). Based on worldwide experience, value methodology can facilitate average saving of about 20-30% of total project costs in developing countries and consequently value engineering (VE) can facilitate the saving required for ICID Vision 2030. The 'transition generation' is the most important hope that humanity has for coping with mega challenges of the twenty-first century. The 'transition generation' must be inspired and empowered. In this context, it is envisioned that value methodology will be proved to be an effective and efficient tool. (c) 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.