Infrastructure finance is essential for advancing development goals of emerging economies. It supports the development of critical infrastructure like highways, clean energy, transport, water, and sanitation, which are the drivers of economic and social growth of a nation. However, infrastructure finance in these emerging economies has been impeded by poor governance systems, fragile financial institutions, and constrained public resources. Thus, this paper aims to identify gaps in infrastructure finance and governance mechanism to recommend policy interventions. Based on a data driven approach, this research paper, critically appraise infrastructure finance and sustainable governance in developing and less developed economies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By examining sectoral performance, historical trends, governance frameworks and financing models, study uncovers enduring inconsistencies that undermine and hinder the implementation of infrastructure projects. This research follows a two-way empirical approach by integrating quantitative secondary data analysis and survey involving key stakeholders from financial institution that fund infrastructure projects and project developers. Besides, this research also analyses global infrastructure finance and sustainable governance reforms to find transferable lessons. These reforms like climate-resilient financing mechanisms and innovative public–private partnerships as success stories are used to set forth strategies to resolve the inconsistencies in regulatory effectiveness, institutional capacity, stakeholder coordination and financial innovation. Thus, this paper presents a forward-looking framework to develop a robust, all encompassing, and financially sustainable infrastructure systems for the Global South.