Why lighting must be treated as core infrastructure

The Signify Foundation is calling on public and private sector partners to treat public lighting as core infrastructure ahead of Unesco’s International Day of Light on 16 May.

The day aims to provide a platform for global dialogue and knowledge-sharing, with a focus on the role of light-based research infrastructures in supporting inclusive scientific development, fostering innovation, and generating socio-economic impact.

Thriving communities

The Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report emphasises the critical role of sustainable lighting in building safer, healthier, and more thriving communities worldwide. The foundation highlights that community lighting remains underfunded and overlooked in development planning, despite its proven contribution to safer streets, better health outcomes, and stronger resilience. So it is calling on state actors, governments, finance institutions and the private sector to treat sustainable lighting as core infrastructure and to fund, maintain and govern it accordingly.

The global lighting company’s foundation has been working with its partners to bring light and opportunities to people who aspire to create a brighter future. To date, it reports it has enabled access to light for 14.8 million people globally since 2017.

“Lighting is often treated as a secondary component of development, when in reality it is fundamental. Without it, clinics close at sundown, children stop studying, and women don’t feel safe walking home,” said Mario Giordano, chair of the Signify Foundation. “The opportunity ahead is to systematically integrate lighting into broader development, climate, and public infrastructure strategies.”

“The opportunity ahead is to systematically integrate lighting into broader development, climate, and public infrastructure strategies”

In 2025 the foundation’s initiatives covered 22 projects in 19 countries, with women and girls making up more than half of beneficiaries (52 per cent).

For over 600 million people worldwide, darkness still limits daily life. By extending a community’s active hours, lighting provides more than just visibility: it enhances safety, dignity, and economic opportunity.  Alongside lighting, the Foundation’s Brighter Communities Programme delivers training in energy efficiency, systems installation and maintenance. The programme operates across three key areas:

• Brighter learning: giving children safe spaces to learn and play after dark by lighting more than 1,000 schools, children’s homes, and playgrounds
• Brighter health: helping improve the quality of care by providing reliable lighting to 161 hospitals, health centres, and clinics
• Brighter living: making streets and shared spaces safer by lighting 152 villages and informal settlements.

These projects directly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).