FIDIC has teamed up with the Confederation of International Contractors’ Associations (CICA) to organise a new webinar series for 2026, with the first event in the three-part series taking place on 26 March 2026 and exploring the role of the engineer in FIDIC contracts. This series of webinars continues on from the successful online events FIDIC and CICA held last year.
The webinar, The Role of the Engineer, was chaired by Fanny Dastugue, the director general of the Confederation of International Contractors’ Associations (CICA) and FIDIC’s chief legal and contracts officer, Daduna Kokhreidze. Speakers at the event included FIDIC president Alfredo Ingletti, Lidice Campos, senior legal counsel at Belgian construction group BESIX, Husni Madi, a member of the FIDIC contracts committee, Ellis Baker, a partner at the law firm White & Case and Jonathan Turgy, head of international and institutional affairs at the consulting group SYSTRA and chairman of the international committee of the French consultancy association Syntec-Ingénierie.
Speakers explored the evolving role of the engineer under FIDIC contracts and the critical influence consulting engineers have on project success. They highlighted the importance of effective engagement between the employer, contractor and the engineer and demonstrated how alignment with FIDIC contract requirements improves risk management, reduces disputes and delivers better outcomes for clients. In his opening address, FIDIC president Alfredo Ingletti set the scene for the webinar by underlining the key role of consulting engineers in delivering sustainable infrastructure.
Ellis Baker from White & Case spoke about the fundamental role of the engineer in the FIDIC Red and Yellow Books and highlighted the origins of what is a dual role – acting as agent of the employer and also acting as a neutral decision-maker. Baker highlighted some of the tensions between this dual role and the engineer’s obligations to the employer and how the particular conditions in the contract should deal with this.
FIDIC contracts committee member Husni Madi addressed how the FIDIC White Book reflected the engineer’s role in the consultant’s scope as envisaged under the Red and Yellow Books and also looked at how the role of the engineer is understood in civil law jurisdictions. He also spoke about the FIDIC Golden Principles and the upcoming FIDIC services agreements’ Golden Principles. He also highlighted the importance of the engineer remaining fair and neutral and gave out some helpful pointers in order to achieve that.
Drawing on her experience of seeing the role of the engineer on projects, Lidice Campos, senior legal counsel at Belgian construction group BESIX, spoke about how technical leadership intersected with contractual leadership, highlighted some of the challenges that can arise on projects and examined the key misconceptions about the engineer’s authority and duties and how these can be addressed from a contractor’s perspective. She also talked about some of the practical steps that could be taken to enhance the knowledge and capacity of project participants.
Jonathan Turgy from Syntec-Ingénierie looked at the issue of what upstream decisions and project preparation steps were needed to make the FIDIC engineer’s role effective, enabling contractors to price accurately and the engineer to administer the contract efficiently. He also spoke about the key importance of involving the industry early, without compromising the competition process, to calibrate the employer’s requirements and decide the right procurement lot strategy, so that interfaces are coherent and effective from the very outset. He also addressed the topical issue of sustainability and how to translate carbon, resilience and social acceptance into contract-ready, verifiable requirements that improve bankability but don’t fuel disputes.
The webinar, the first in the three-part series of events organised by CICA and FIDIC, was very well attended with over 1,000 registering and highlighted the benefits of the continuing collaboration between these two important industry organisations. Future webinars will cover the application of FIDIC contracts in underground works and the importance of strong project preparation for successful outcomes and, like this event, the next two webinars will feature expert speakers, practical case insights and interactive discussions.
The next two webinars in the three-part series are Going Underground with the FIDIC Emerald Book on Thursday 25 June 2026 from 2pm – 3.30pm CET and The Good Preparation of Construction Projects on Thursday 1 October 2026 from 2pm – 3.30pm CET. Keep an eye on the FIDIC website for details of how to book for these events.
Click below to watch the webinar, The Role of the Engineer.
