Infrastructure 42939 286 January 2008 Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Operations Results and Learning Unit on behalf of the Region. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group. Building Capacity in Management and Financing in the Road Sector In SSA, the establishment of achievement and basic train- road funds (which now num- ing in key professional disci- ber about 24) and the cre- plines -- engineering, eco- ation of autonomous road nomics, accounting, etc. -- agencies (now in at least 12 are the key building blocks. countries) have created a The institutional work envi- burgeoning need for profes- ronment and incentive struc- sional staff with the requisite ture then also play a critical financial and managerial role: how well are skills skills to effectively pilot and productively employed in help develop the new institu- achieving outputs, how appro- tions. priately are skills and experi- ence rewarded. How effectively are these needs currently being met? This note focuses on a third What must be done to gear set of factors, post-experi- up support provided to capac- ence training in disciplines ity building in the areas of including, but not limited to, management and financing management and finance to bearing in mind the growing enable the new institutions number of SSA countries and the governments con- implementing road sector cerned to reap the benefits of reforms (30 plus and count- international best practices ing; the number of new insti- and to effectively internalize tutions in the process of the key lessons of experi- formation, or of restructur- ence. Formal education to ing; the reality of staff attri- masters level (or higher) has tion and turnover. a role to play. But the argument here is Findings that short course programs Training for Capacity aimed at an executive audi- Building ence can be considered a Building, and then sustain- highly effective and timely ing, capacity for road sector means of delivery of the management is most likely to benefits of training. These be achieved by a combination of factors. Solid educational programs allow SSA countries Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania ing institutions is not always not only to learn from each -- out of a total of 18. easy to measure. other but also from experi- ence outside the region. In addition Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Uganda have regularly sent a Main Challenges number of participants to the Contribution of Interna- course. To some extent, the From the starting premise tional and Regional Training cost of participation for SSA that this type of training is making a positive con- Anglophone SSA tribution, the note now countries have been Table 1. Anglophone training at University of Birmingham. goes on to identify and able to benefit in All modules (training weeks) discuss five specific recent years from the Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 areas of challenge like: offerings of the Inter- national Road Federa- Total 60 109 65 122 · Ensuring that the tion (IRF) courses and SSA 41 76 26 45 total offer of capacity from the Senior Road Kenya 8 19 3 9 building opportunities Executives Program of Ghana 2 6 8 12 really responds to the University of Zambia 3 8 3 6 quantum of demand, Birmingham. IRF has Tanzania 2 12 3 - including those in provided opportuni- Nigeria 3 5 - 9 languages other than ties, notably in con- English; tract management and also in road asset man- · Involving regional agement and road safety; and is a drawback (the course is associations in meeting the University of Birmingham run on a cost recovery basis). demand and strengthening has developed an annual This is somewhat offset by program design; program delivered in a num- the large majority of SSA · Sharpening the definition of ber of modules through which participants benefiting from participants can qualify for a financial assistance from the the specific sub-markets Certificate in Road Manage- donor community. For those within the overall demand ment. The recent program who have participated, the and developing relevant modules concern inno- offerings; vations in road manage- Table 2. Anglophone training at University of · Promoting the wider ment, road financing Birmingham. Finance module only (training weeks) involvement of training and road fund manage- institutions including ment, and road asset Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 those in SSA; management. Total 23 32 25 43 · Developing and dissemi- Table 1 presents the SSA 21 21 8 18 nating materials for com- extent of SSA participa- Kenya 3 4 1 4 municating innovations tion in the Birmingham Ghana 2 1 3 5 and on findings and rec- programFor the years Zambia 2 4 1 2 ommendations for im- 2001­2004. Tanzania 1 2 - - proved road management. Nigeria 2 2 - 4 Overall just over 50% of participants have been drawn from SSA, a feedback is largely positive Strategies for Responding to slightly higher proportion of and the benefits to the con- These Challenges 55% for the finance module. cerned individuals are evi- About 70% of SSA participa- dent. However, the impact of Assessing aggregate de- tion has come from five coun- the training on the sponsor- mand. Experience to date tries -- Kenya, Zambia, does not give an indication as to what the extent of Table 3. Francophone training at École Nationale des Ponts kets whose needs demand might be, or et Chaussées (training weeks) may overlap but not the extent to which be identical. These that demand may be Year 2003 (all) 2004 (finance only) 2004 (all) would be (1) techni- price sensitive (in- cal managerial cluding location. Total 31 17 50 staff; (2) middle and Institutions already SSA 30 15 46 Cameroon - 6- 8 senior line road involved in the provi- Chad 5 1 5 managers; (3) ex- sion of training -- Madagascar 9 - 6 ecutive boards; (4) and those that may senior government be interesting in decision makers. doing so in future -- would be interested to know. associations in SSA -- such The table below illustrates It would be a useful exercise as the newly created Road how the training offerings to carry out the necessary Fund Association (ARMFA), could be differentiated to surveys and plan accordingly. the reorganized Road Manag- serve their needs. More At least it can be said that ers and Partners Association attention probably does need there is a Francophone de- (AGEPAR) as well as profes- to be given to groups (3) and mand -- hardly met at all sional networks such as (4). This is because countries before -- for which offerings SITRASS1 and IFRTD.2 engaged in implementing of the École Nationale des reforms have clearly stated Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) These associations provide poorly briefed boards and have been mounted with the access to a community of officials -- and the antago- assistance of SSATP. practitioners with specific nism to reform in some needs representing different government circles -- are Table 3 indicates the num- segments of the broad de- obstacles to changes that bers accommodated in the mand for capacity enhance- have to be addressed.3 For first two years, and the ment. Associations could board level training, some unsurprising preponderance readily be more involved in past initiatives of the Zambia of SSA participants in that the development of demand National Roads Board have number. -- identifying suitable coun- produced interesting results. try level partners; developing In addition, "Tariff and Traf- However, thus far, the criteria for candidate selec- fic," a strategic game devel- primary training delivery is tion; organizing in-country oped by the SSATP, could be from Europe and dependent workshops, including training more widely used in training on two institutions. Prima of future trainers from local road fund boards in strategic facie, increasing the number institutions; advising on planning and decision-mak- and diversity of potential dissemination of lessons ing. institutions may be strategi- learned from past training. In cally sound. How to involve the longer term a role in Promoting the role of re- SSA institutions is discussed delivery of knowledge might gional training hubs. Ini- below, but there may be also be envisaged. tially for the Anglophone other options to explore, such training, now relatively well as shown by the recent Inter- Developing specific mar- established, the notion is to national Road Federation kets. Finance and manage- devise a strategy to roll out (IRF) training offered in ment training is not offered the training and thus, pro- Brazil. exclusively to road agency or vide more courses -- includ- road fund executives. Gov- ing, modules tailored to spe- ernment ministries may cific markets; train more Involving regional associa- benefit, and indeed the pri- participants; involve local tions. There are growing vate sector and external institutions whose capacity in number of sector specific partners too. There perhaps turn could be strengthened. exist at least four core mar- Matrix for M & F courses Market sectors Components Technical Mid/senior Executive Senior managers Board government Underlying principles Yes Yes yes Finance Income streams Sources Yes Yes Yes yes Calculation of Yes Yes charges Fund management Institutional Yes Yes Yes Systems Yes Yes Management Underlying principles Yes Yes Yes yes Institutional structures Yes Yes yes Systems Operational Yes Yes Financial Yes yes In principle, the same forward some research activ- Taking SSATP products process of decentralization ity in related areas. However, as an example, case could be applied to the a lot of initial support would studies can take the Francophone training, with be needed to train trainers, form of in depth country special regard to markets (1) develop facilitation skills, and specific analyses, such and (2), though this is not in promote client orientation. as the Uganda and place yet. For Anglophone Tanzania discussion Diversifying course mate- countries, the process papers,4 or may take the rial. Meeting an increased started with training offered form of a review of expe- and more diversified demand on a regional course run in rience across a number for the development of course September 2003 in Ethiopia of countries, such as on material that can meet the for 19 participants. The Uni- road fund performance needs of different markets -- versity of Birmingham has and on road toll experi- as well as ensuring compa- started partnering -- in 2003 ences. rable access to documents in with the University of English and French. Experi- In the case of tools, the Pretoria for a 2-week course ence with management and SSATP has again a po- that attracted some 28 par- finance courses to date tentially important role ticipants in November 2003, demonstrates the value of to play, as demonstrated and in 2004 in a planned case study material drawn by two applications: the collaboration with the Uni- from SSA experience. Roads Economic Deci- versity of Nairobi. sion (RED) Model,5 now Also, as far as technical The ultimate idea is per- available in English and and line management is haps to have three (or more) French, to assist plan- concerned, it is usually not a "poles," one each in South- ning investment and matter of persuading partici- ern, Eastern and Western maintenance strategies pants of the benefit of re- Africa, which in the afore- on low volume roads; forms; it is more a case of mentioned partnership could SOURCE6 (standard providing the tools for them provide high quality training overall ultralite road to do a better job in influenc- to a wider range of partici- care estimate) to provide ing key decision makers. pants at a lower cost per a common overall indica- SSATP is well placed to pro- head. It would be expected tor of network service vide this material directly, or that over time the regional levels. to encourage its development institutions could play a by others, by the SSA train- progressively larger role, ing institutions for case helping to develop and deliver studies. course material and carrying Impact of Training · Kenya which (along with and language; (c) sharpening Laos) sent the entire mem- the definition of markets and Training providers, country bership of the newly estab- differentiating delivery strat- sponsors and the external lished Roads Board to egies; (d) involving regional partners who provide funding attend the Senior Road sector associations in mar- are all interested in ensuring Executives Program in 2000 ket development and in that the training has an in order to orientate the dissemination; (e) diversify- impact on institutional per- team to its new task; ing course material, includ- formance, which in turn ing case studies. translates into improved · Zambia which successfully outcomes for the road sector utilized the same program as a whole. This does not in 2001and 2002 to help The authors would like to happen automatically. Ad- prepare and adopt a revised acknowledge the assistance of, vance strategy and careful road sector institutional and comments and suggestions planning and implementation structure, the first team to made by Mustapha are though likely to raise the complete the reflection on Benmaamar, Sadie Charles, probability of success. the policy and legislative Bernard Gambini, Ian Heggie, framework, a second team What are some of the mea- Richard Robinson, Dieter to plan the implementation; sures that can be taken? Schelling, and Martin Snaith. · Chad which presented the · Participants should be reform of its road fund as a selected primarily on the case study at the first basis of who has most to Francophone training in contribute to institutional 1Solidarité Internationale sur les Transports et 2003, and used the feed- goals; la Recherche en Afrique subsaharienne back to help finalize its 2International Forum for Rural Transport and Development · Each participant needs to strategy. 3Pinard, M.I. and S.M.A. Kaombwe. Imple- have specific agreed objec- mentation and Impact of RMI. A survey of stakeholders in seven countries. SSATP tives for the training; after Working Paper no. 62, December 2001. the training the results Conclusions 4Kumar, A., A Contrasting Approach to Road need to be captured Reforms SSATP Discussion Paper No.1 and A Review of Road Sector Reforms in through a monitored imple- Post experience training in Tanzania, Discussion Paper No.2 mentation plan; and road management and fi- 5Archondo-Callao, R., .The Roads Economic nancing offered by estab- Decision Model . Software User Guide and Case Studies, SSATP Working Paper No 78, · Timing of training should to lished training providers can July 2004. the extent possible be tied add significant value to ca- 6Fernique, L. SOURCE: a large scale bench- to specific decision points or pacity building programs of mark tool for road networks. SSATP Note 34, February 2002 harmonized with planning SSA road sector institutions. and strategic cycles within There are a now a number of the institutions to enhance dimensions that could be the results. pursued to enhance the impact of training, with Experience suggests that particular regard to cross the impact of training can be country experience and improved if participation is sharing of best practices. undertaken by a team rather This Findings was than by individuals. Three As this note has set out, reproduced from the Africa following examples illustrate these include (a) further Region's Sub Saharan the types of benefits that work on demand assessment; Transport Policy Program countries can derive from (b) widening the range of Note 37 by Stephen this approach: training providers involved, Brushett, Les Sampson, and with regard both to location Solomon Waithaka.