Other Infrastructure Study

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Infrastructure Development in Edo State: Adapting to Constraints and Creating Capabilities
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04-29) Porter, Douglas John; Rasool Cyan, Musharraf; Lee, Panthea; Brisson, Zack; Itegboje, Osione; Talsma, Adam
Governor Adams Oshiomhole assumed office in November 2008 following a successful court appeal to retrieve the mandate given to him by the people of Edo. Widespread support from a variety of interest groups buttressed the legal challenge and helped create the political space for the Governor’s pursuit of an agenda focused on both reform and speedy delivery. Popular demand for reform was evident, but responding to this presented major challenges. Historically,Edo had been one of the best performing states in the country. Expectations were high that he would restore this status and address the perceived poor performance and allegations of corruption leveled against previous administrations. This case study is an attempt to better understand the process through which the Administration was able to maximize its delivery. This report is one product of several ongoing efforts by the World Bank to better understand how to better tailor its interventions to local realities with the overarching objective of improving its impact. To do this in the case of capital spending in Edo, it was necessary to craft a study method that suspended judgments about actual practices. Thus, rather than holding these practices up to international standards, and highlighting deficits and shortcomings in relation to those standards, the study purpose was to depict how the State administration had responded to the political priorities of the new Governor by adapting to the constraints it faced and creating new ways to deliver through infrastructure spending. This case study underlines the very rich and often messy reality that leaders frequently find when assuming office and the trade-offs that they are forced to make. In doing so, it reminds us of the political realities within which we work and, like other case studies recently undertaken to inform Bank engagements in Nigeria, finds that traditional blue print approaches in such circumstances are unlikely to work and that sequencing, tailoring to local contexts and adaptation along a non-linear road to reform is more feasible path.
Zimbabwe Infrastructure Policy Review
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-12-09) Ringskog, Klas
Many empirical studies have demonstrated the close relationship between a country’s economic development and its stock of infrastructure. Decades of deferred maintenance and lack of long-term financing have taken a heavy toll on Zimbabwe’s infrastructure that at one time was ranked at the top in Africa. Only the information and communications technologies (ICT) sector has been performing relatively well but its high tariffs add to the cost of doing business in Zimbabwe. The strategy in the infrastructure sectors is to encourage public private partnerships (PPPs) for the financing and execution of the different sub-projects. This strategy has been emerging in the electric power, road transport, and ICT sectors and is now being extended to water supply and sanitation. This review builds on the findings from an October-November 2013 mission that, upon the request of the Ministry of Finance, assessed the ministerial submissions for the 2014 public sector investment program (PSIP). The review concludes that the perception of the predictable policies is key for attracting responsible private partners for sustainable PPPs. The review recommends less risky options such as: (i) outsourcing operations of existing plants; (ii) lease contracts of existing plants; and (iii) sales of existing thermal plants. The review notes that the analytical multi donor trust fund (AMDTF) is programmed to close on June 30, 2014. It is of the essence to explore the possibilities to locate concessionary funding for a successor to the AMDTF given the high priority of additional studies in the power, water, and ICT sectors to prepare for the reforms suggested.
International Experience in Bus Rapid Transit Implementation : Synthesis of Lessons Learned from Lagos, Johannesburg, Jakarta, Delhi, and Ahmedabad
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-01) Kumar, Ajay; Zimmerman, Samuel; Agarwal, O.P.
It is in this context that this study has been undertaken to document BRT case studies in terms of the political setting, institutions/governance, public involvement and communications, service/operations/management and planning and their relationship to investment performance. The study has been undertaken in recognition of the fact that successful implementation and operation of BRT systems often reflects non-physical actors like leadership, communications, organizational structure, service planning and operating practices rather than the design of transitways, stations, terminals and vehicles. This paper does not seek to compare BRT with other forms of public transport but only seeks to evaluate a sample of BRT systems in terms of the softer issues that have contributed making a BRT system successful or not so successful.
Public-Private Partnership in Telecommunications Infrastructure Projects : Case of the Republic of Congo
(Washington, DC, 2011-01) World Bank
This paper delineates the role of government in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the telecommunication sector in the Republic of the Congo. PPPs offer policy makers an opportunity to improve the delivery of services and the management of facilities, and help to mobilize private capital which in turn speeds up the delivery of public infrastructure. Along with power and transportation infrastructure projects, telecommunication figures among the most growing area in PPP projects in Africa. Nevertheless, fitting telecommunication projects into a PPP model is challenging. In order to address these challenges, this paper also summarizes the achievements in Congo's economic infrastructure sector, the risks allocated to the implementation of the project, and recommends World Bank Group risk mitigation instruments.
Public-Private Partnership in Telecommunications Infrastructure Projects : Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(Washington, DC, 2011-01) World Bank
This paper outlines the role of government in infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the telecommunication industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also summarizes the state of Congo's telecommunication infrastructure, the advantages of Open Access Network (OAN) as a Broadband PPP Business Model, as well as risks allocated to the implementation of the project and proposes the World Bank Group risk mitigation instruments.
Railways in Sub-Saharan Africa
(World Bank, 2009-06-01) World Bank
The changed role of rail in Africa over the last thirty years has seen it move from a situation where many of the systems were carrying a high share of their country's traffic to one in which their market share has declined, their assets have steadily deteriorated, their quality of service has reduced, and they are in many instances only a minor contributor to solving the transport problems of the continent. The first railways south of the Sahara were built in South Africa in the 1860's and 1870's, with lines heading inland from the ports at Cape Town and Durban. The networks in what were then Cape Province, Natal and Transvaal continued to develop but it was not until the turn of the twentieth century that large-scale railway development began in other parts of the continent. In almost every case, the pattern was the same, with isolated lines heading inland from a port to reach a trading centre or a mine, and a few branch lines then being built over a period of time. As almost all the lines were constructed under colonial administrations, many of the lines were state-owned but several were also constructed as concessions or, in the case of some mineral developments, by the mining company as an integral part of its mining operation. Nevertheless, the rhetoric accompanying some of the transactions suggests that many politicians believe, or want to believe, that the concession award will be the prelude to very substantial investments by the concessionaires, particularly in infrastructure. To date, this has barely materialized, with most infrastructure improvements being done with international financial institution (IFI) or donor funds. The main issue for most sub-Saharan railways is whether concessioning is just a temporary solution or whether some alternative approach is needed to ensure a long-term future for railway systems providing acceptable levels of service.
Lessons Learned from Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in Transport Sector Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Washington, DC, 2008-06) World Bank
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic burdens Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and continues to constrain its social and economic advancement. Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has estimated that in southern Africa alone, 930,000 adults and children died of AIDS in 2005. This represents about one-third of AIDS deaths recorded globally that year. In addition, about 12 million children below the age of 17 in SSA are estimated to have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Africa Technical Transport Sector Unit (AFTTR) has made progress in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in its portfolio. However, there is still more work ahead in ensuring that all projects are mainstreamed as needed. In this context, the transport sector board needs to continue supporting such future mainstreaming efforts by establishing a sector board strategy for HIV/AIDS activities on Bank-financed transport projects. The diverse nature of transportation activities implies that mainstreaming is both challenging and urgent. In 2000, the Africa transport team gave high priority to its contribution to the campaign against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and pledged to mainstream HIV/AIDS actions in the Bank's lending operations and at country level in the transport sector. The transport sector contributed significantly through integrating simple activities into its operations (such as HIV/AIDS contract clauses into bidding documents for road construction site workers). Similarly, the Bank financed a first-round workshop to prepare HIV/AIDS prevention policy in the workplace for Ministry employees. Its main objective is to develop and implement highly focused prevention interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence and slow down the spread of the disease in the transport sector. This document is subdivided in four sections. The first section gives background information on the transport sector and HIV/AIDS. The second section describes the Bank's transport sector activities, with particular focus on the Africa region and its achievements regarding HIV/AIDS. The third section presents the process and the results of the assessment of the Africa transport sector portfolio for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming. The fourth section enumerates the lessons learned as well as the recommendations made to the World Bank's Transport Sector Board and to stakeholders in the client countries.
Zimbabwe Infrastructure Dialogue in Roads, Railways, Water, Energy, and Telecommunication Sub-Sectors
(Washington, DC, 2008-06) World Bank
In the 1990s, Zimbabwe's economic growth began to slow following a balance of payments crisis and repeated droughts. By the late 1990s Zimbabwe's economy was in serious trouble driven by economic mismanagement, political violence, and the wider impact of the land reform program on food production. During 2007 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contract by more than 6 percent, making the cumulative output decline over 35 percent since 1999. The unrelenting economic deterioration is doing long-term damage to the foundations of the Zimbabwean economy, private sector investment is virtually zero, infrastructure has deteriorated, and skilled professionals have left the country. With inflation accelerating, the Government introduced, in 2007, blanket price controls and ordered businesses to cut prices by half. Despite the strict price controls inflation continues to rise as the root cause of high inflation, monetization of the large public sector financing needs remains unaddressed. A large part of the high public sector deficit is due to quasi-fiscal spending by the central bank on mainly concessional credits and subsidized foreign exchange for priority sectors, unrealized exchange rate losses, and losses incurred by the central bank's open market operations to mop up liquidities.
More Fiscal Resources for Infrastructure? Evidence from East Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06) Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia; Foster, Vivien
This paper evaluates the extent of fiscal resource availability for infrastructure in four East African countries and explores the main options for its expansion. A number of major channels will be examined. The first is the extent to which expenditure is well allocated across sectors, sub-sectors, expense categories, jurisdictions and geographic areas. The second is the extent to which there is scope for improving efficiency by enhancing the operational performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs), restoring adequate levels of maintenance, or improving the selection and implementation of investment projects. The third is the extent to which user charges are applied and set at levels consistent with cost recovery. The fourth is the extent to which private sector participation has been fully exploited as a vehicle for raising investment finance. While it is difficult to evaluate these things very precisely, a number of proxy indicators are used to shed light on the matter.
The Evolution of Enterprise Reform in Africa : From State-Owned Enterprises to Private Participation in Infrastructure—and Back?
(Washington, DC, 2005-11) World Bank
From the outset state-owned enterprises (SOE) financial and economic performance generally failed to meet the expectations of their creators and funders. There were African SOEs that performed, at least for a time, adequately and sometimes very well, by the most stringent of standards (e.g., Ethiopian Airlines, the Kenya Tea Development Authority, Sierra Leone's Guma Valley Water Company). But the good performers were heavily outnumbered by the bad. Numerous studies and reports from this period document the poor technical and financial performance of African SOEs in general and infrastructure SOEs in particular. Many of the latter failed to produce a sufficient quantity or a high quality of service or product, and posed increasing financial burdens on strained state budgets.