Publication: The SADC’s Infrastructure : A Regional Perspective
Loading...
Published
2011-12-01
ISSN
Date
2012-03-19
Author(s)
Ranganathan, Rupa
Editor(s)
Abstract
Infrastructure improvements boosted growth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by 1.2 percentage points per capita per year during 1995-2005, mainly from access to mobile telephony. Road network improvements made small growth contributions, while power sector inadequacy had a negative impact. Infrastructure improvements that matched those of Mauritius, the regional leader, could boost regional growth performance by 3 percentage points. SADC's 15 member countries include small, isolated economies with island states, a mix of low- and middle-income countries, and larger countries with potentially large economies. The economic geography reinforces the importance of regional infrastructure development to create a larger market and greater economic opportunities. The region's infrastructure indicators are high for Africa. The regional road network is well-developed, and surface transport is comparatively cheap, but subject to delays and long-haul fees. An extensive railway system competes directly with road transport. With integration and improvements, SADC's ports could form an effective transshipment network. Air transport, dominated by South Africa, is the best in Africa. Electricity in southern Africa is well developed; the region leads Africa in generation capacity and low rates, but access is limited. ICT services are the most accessible among the regions, though expensive. Landlocked countries still need to be connected, and greater competition is needed to reduce costs. Completing and maintaining SADC's infrastructure will require $2.1 billion annually for a decade. For small countries, and large countries with small revenues, the burden may be insurmountable without external assistance.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Ranganathan, Rupa; Foster, Vivien. 2011. The SADC’s Infrastructure : A Regional Perspective. Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5898. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3665 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication The Economic Value of Weather Forecasts: A Quantitative Systematic Literature Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-10)This study systematically reviews the literature that quantifies the economic benefits of weather observations and forecasts in four weather-dependent economic sectors: agriculture, energy, transport, and disaster-risk management. The review covers 175 peer-reviewed journal articles and 15 policy reports. Findings show that the literature is concentrated in high-income countries and most studies use theoretical models, followed by observational and then experimental research designs. Forecast horizons studied, meteorological variables and services, and monetization techniques vary markedly by sector. Estimated benefits even within specific subsectors span several orders of magnitude and broad uncertainty ranges. An econometric meta-analysis suggests that theoretical studies and studies in richer countries tend to report significantly larger values. Barriers that hinder value realization are identified on both the provider and user sides, with inadequate relevance, weak dissemination, and limited ability to act recurring across sectors. Policy reports rely heavily on back-of-the-envelope or recursive benefit-transfer estimates, rather than on the methods and results of the peer-reviewed literature, revealing a science-to-policy gap. These findings suggest substantial socioeconomic potential of hydrometeorological services around the world, but also knowledge gaps that require more valuation studies focusing on low- and middle-income countries, addressing provider- and user-side barriers and employing rigorous empirical valuation methods to complement and validate theoretical models.Publication It’s Not (Just) the Tariffs: Rethinking Non-Tariff Measures in a Fragmented Global Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22)As tariffs have declined, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have become central to trade policy, especially in high-income countries and regulated sectors like food and green technologies. Although NTMs may serve legitimate goals, they could also sort countries and firms into or out of markets based on compliance capacity and differences in product mix. Documenting recent advances in the estimation of ad valorem equivalents (AVEs), this paper uncovers new patterns of use and exposure of NTMs. High-income countries rely more heavily on NTMs relative to tariffs, while low- and middle-income countries face steeper AVEs on their exports. Firm-level evidence shows that NTMs disproportionately affect smaller firms, leading to market exit and concentration. Poorly designed NTMs can harm productivity and welfare, while coordinated, capacity-aware use can deliver inclusive outcomes. Policy design, transparency, and diagnostics must evolve to reflect the growing role—and risks—of NTMs in a fragmented global trade landscape.Publication Monitoring Global Aid Flows: A Novel Approach Using Large Language Models(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04)Effective monitoring of development aid is the foundation for assessing the alignment of flows with their intended development objectives. Existing reporting systems, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Creditor Reporting System, provide standardized classification of aid activities but have limitations when it comes to capturing new areas like climate change, digitalization, and other cross-cutting themes. This paper proposes a bottom-up, unsupervised machine learning framework that leverages textual descriptions of aid projects to generate highly granular activity clusters. Using the 2021 Creditor Reporting System data set of nearly 400,000 records, the model produces 841 clusters, which are then grouped into 80 subsectors. These clusters reveal 36 emerging aid areas not tracked in the current Creditor Reporting System taxonomy, allow unpacking of “multi-sectoral” and “sector not specified” classifications, and enable estimation of flows to new themes, including World Bank Global Challenge Programs, International Development Association–20 Special Themes, and Cross-Cutting Issues. Validation against both Creditor Reporting System benchmarks and International Development Association commitment data demonstrates robustness. This approach illustrates how machine learning and the new advances in large language models can enhance the monitoring of global aid flows and inform future improvements in aid classification and reporting. It offers a useful tool that can support more responsive and evidence-based decision-making, helping to better align resources with evolving development priorities.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.Publication The State of Global Services Trade Policies: Evidence from Recent Data(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-28)The economic environment for services trade has changed dramatically over the past 15 years, driven by rapid technological progress that has expanded the possibilities for exchanging services. How has trade policy responded to these changes? How do policy stances in a wide range of service sectors compare across economies? With its unprecedented global coverage, the Services Trade Policy Database and the associated Services Trade Restrictions Index, developed jointly by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, help address these questions. This paper makes three principal contributions. First, it offers an in-depth discussion of the current state of services trade policies and their differences across 134 economies and 34 services subsectors. Second, the paper reveals how recent (2016–22) changes in policy stances have seen progressive liberalization by lower-income economies but stabilization or even slight policy reversals in high-income economies. This dynamic differs fundamentally from the trend that unfolded after the Great Recession over 2008–16. Third, the paper shows the implications of policy changes over the past six years on services trade costs, and it showcases how the Services Trade Policy Database’s regulatory information can inform trade negotiations, regulatory analysis, and policy making. Alongside these contributions, the paper documents updates to the Services Trade Policy Database’s economy and sector coverage and explains the latest methodological improvements made to the World Bank–World Trade Organization Services Trade Restrictions Index.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication East Africa's Infrastructure : A Regional Perspective(2011-10-01)Sound infrastructure is critical for growth in East Africa. During 1995-2005, improvements in infrastructure boosted growth by one percentage point per year, due largely to wider access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although power infrastructure sapped growth in other regions of Africa, it contributed 0.2 percentage points per year growth in East Africa. If East Africa's infrastructure could be improved to the level of the strongest performing country in Africa (Mauritius), regional growth performance would be boosted by some six percentage points, with power making the strongest contribution. East Africa's infrastructure ranks behind that of southern and western Africa across a range of indicators, though in terms of access to improved sources of water and sanitation and Internet density, it is comparable with or superior to the subcontinent s leader, southern Africa. By contrast, density of fixed-line telephones, power generation capacity, and access to electricity remain extremely low, though utility performance is improving through regional power trades. The road network is relatively good, although with some lengths of poor-quality or unpaved roads. Surface transport is challenged by border crossings, port delays, slow travel, limited railways, and trade logistics, but the region has a relatively mature and competitive trucking industry. Air transport benefits from a strong hub-and-spoke structure but has made little progress toward market liberalization. Of the seven countries in the region, four are landlocked, two have populations of fewer than 10 million people, and two have an annual gross domestic product of less than $10 billion. The difficult economic geography of East Africa makes a regional approach to infrastructure development necessary to achieve further improvement.Publication Trade and Transport Facilitation in South Asia : Systems in Transition, Volume 1. Summary and Main Report(Washington, DC, 2008-06-23)Over the past few decades, the World trading system has become increasingly more open. Tariff rates have been reduced and quantitative restrictions (quotas) have been progressively eliminated, e.g. the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA). Most countries have adopted more outward-looking economic policies, seeking to increase growth and employment through expanding exports. Such outward looking policies have even been adopted by countries which previously pursued policies based on import substitution as in South Asia. Protective trade restrictions still persist, but tend to be in terms of more subtle non-tariff barriers (such as sanitary or phyto-sanitary standards), though anti-dumping measures and temporary quantity restrictions are still used by many countries to shield domestic producers. Trade regulations no longer solely attempt to protect domestic producers; their scope has extended to cover the need for enhanced security and the desire for greater consumer protection through the traceability of the production chain for many agricultural products. Intense competition compels firms to reduce costs throughout their manufacturing and distribution processes. Outsourcing to lower cost firms and countries has been one major source of cost reduction, reduced inventory costs through just-in-time manufacturing, and distribution systems has been another. Both are predicated on efficient, reliable and low-cost supply chains. With the worldwide fall in tariff levels, the efficiency of supply chains and the associated logistics costs are becoming core determinants of the competitiveness of both firms and countries. They may also influence the destination of inward direct investment; many countries can offer low labor costs and tax incentives, fewer can offer quick, efficient, reliable, and low cost logistics.Publication Trade and Transport Facilitation in South Asia : Systems in Transition, Volume 2. Annexes(Washington, DC, 2008-06-23)Over the past few decades, the World trading system has become increasingly more open. Tariff rates have been reduced and quantitative restrictions (quotas) have been progressively eliminated, e.g. the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA). Most countries have adopted more outward-looking economic policies, seeking to increase growth and employment through expanding exports. Such outward looking policies have even been adopted by countries which previously pursued policies based on import substitution as in South Asia. Protective trade restrictions still persist, but tend to be in terms of more subtle non-tariff barriers (such as sanitary or phyto-sanitary standards), though anti-dumping measures and temporary quantity restrictions are still used by many countries to shield domestic producers. Trade regulations no longer solely attempt to protect domestic producers; their scope has extended to cover the need for enhanced security and the desire for greater consumer protection through the traceability of the production chain for many agricultural products. Intense competition compels firms to reduce costs throughout their manufacturing and distribution processes. Outsourcing to lower cost firms and countries has been one major source of cost reduction, reduced inventory costs through just-in-time manufacturing, and distribution systems has been another. Both are predicated on efficient, reliable and low-cost supply chains. With the worldwide fall in tariff levels, the efficiency of supply chains and the associated logistics costs are becoming core determinants of the competitiveness of both firms and countries. They may also influence the destination of inward direct investment; many countries can offer low labor costs and tax incentives, fewer can offer quick, efficient, reliable, and low cost logistics.Publication Reforming the Indian Ports Sector(Washington, DC, 2013-06)Maritime transport carries more than nine-tenths of tonnage of world international trade. The international shipping industry, competitive and dominated by private companies, has delivered to trading nations increasing capacity, generally improving service levels, and declining unit shipping costs. To access and extract the maximum benefit from this vital transport resource each nation depends on the performance of its ports sector; not only on the capacity, quality and price of port services but also their connectivity to hinterlands and to the industrial and consumer markets they serve. Ports in India, as in many countries, face continued pressure to handle higher throughput, adapt to larger and more specialized vessels, improve productivity, and adopt new technology and information systems that can meet the increasingly demanding service standards expected by shippers, logistics companies and shipping operators. As in all economic sectors, the success of ports depends not only on investment in its infrastructure but on supportive policy and regulatory structures, and on the effectiveness of the institutions that deliver services to customers. This Report contains an analysis of the current status of India s ports sector, identifies potential constraints on the ability of ports to meet India s future development needs, and sets out a recommended policy framework to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector.Publication Cambodia Trade Corridor Performance Assessment(Phnom Penh, 2014-04)The study found that logistics costs are high due to transshipment costs and various forms of payments. Many of these payments are imposed by the private sector with little or no transparency on how or where the costs are incurred. International trade corridors in Cambodia therefore perform well in terms of time but not cost. However, the corridors with transshipment have higher costs than the national corridor between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville or the river corridor to the port of Cai Mep in Vietnam. Large shippers and international firms prefer to use several sub-contractors to make logistics arrangements so they do not have to coordinate what can be fairly complex and challenging arrangements for shipments. Intermediation in logistics is largely carried out by local agencies, leading to high intermediation costs. The main reason for the high intermediation cost is the prevalence and wide acceptance of facilitation fees as inducements for fast clearance and processing. Facilitation fees, largely informal, contribute to the high costs of logistics. Intermediaries, mostly forwarders and brokers, play a key role in collecting these payments. However, payment of such fees is clouded by lack of transparency. One of the main challenges is how to deal with informal payments in logistics in Cambodia. Another contributor to high costs is private sector capacity in the provision of logistics services, which is still low. Most of the truck fl eet is operated by family-run businesses owning a few trucks. Trucks are generally old which contributes also to the lack of appetite to operate across borders and at the same time compromises the feasibility of developing an effective transit system.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28)Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.