Publication: A Framework for Enhancing Intra-regional Connectivity in the Horn of Africa
Loading...
Date
2021-06-21
ISSN
Published
2021-06-21
Author(s)
Derudder, Ben
Editor(s)
Abstract
This background paper systematically maps and assesses the connectivity of cities in the Horn of Africa (HoA) and uses the results to proposes a number of policy perspectives on how to strategically boost connectivity in different parts of the region. Analytically, this is achieved through network analysis of the directness, the diversity, topology and the density of HoA cities’ transport infrastructure connections. Crucially, network analysis allows proxying HoA cities’ potential to participate in value chains at various geographical scales and identifying key areas of possible intervention. Results can guide institutional and governance measures that can be taken to influence connectivity as a whole and for specific cities and transport corridors in particular. The output can thus help determine the interventions that are needed to tackle bottlenecks in corridors, addressing infrastructure, policy and regulatory constraints. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 outlines the rationale for an analysis of inter-urban connectivity in general and its linkages with the broader topic of regional integration and the economic geographies of the HoA in particular. Section 3 discusses our analytical framework, while Section 4 discusses the results. The paper is concluded with a discussion of key policy perspectives in section 5.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Derudder, Ben; Kunaka, Charles. 2021. A Framework for Enhancing Intra-regional Connectivity in the Horn of Africa. Horn of Africa Regional Economic Memorandum Background Paper;No. 5. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36494 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Logistics in Lagging Regions : Overcoming Local Barriers to Global Connectivity(World Bank, 2011)This report is based on two case studies carried out in Brazil and India on the impact of various strategies to reduce the cost of trade for small-scale producers. Small scale producers especially those located in lagging regions in developing countries lack easy access to efficient logistics services. They are faced with long distances from both domestic and international markets. Unless the enterprises are able to consolidate traffic volumes they can be excluded from international supply chains. However, the process of consolidation is not without cost nor does it occur on its own accord. It is typically handled by outside parties in the form of intermediaries. The study was designed around the horizontal relationships between the small scale producers and their vertical connections to higher tier parties involved in the same supply chain. It analyzes the cooperative approach to linking producers, the role of itinerant traders, and a newer and innovative approach to the same problem through virtual integration of farmers using modern information communication technologies. These approaches were explored by studying two separate supply chains, sisal in Brazil and soybean in India, enabling the assessment of logistics patterns from the farm gate to onboard vessel at the export gateway. The assessment of logistics performance at the sub-national level is still evolving. The more widely used density-type indicators emphasize the infrastructure dimension of logistics but do not handle effectively the relationships and service quality attributes identified by the study. A model built around spatial and social networks is proposed to represent the horizontal and vertical attributes of logistics in lagging regions.Publication Integrating Border Regions : Connectivity and Competitiveness in South Asia(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-07)Deeper regional integration can be beneficial especially for regions along international borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods. This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the northeast of the subcontinent to measure the degrees of trade complementarity between districts. The paper illustrates that the regions are underexploiting the potential of intraregional commerce. Price wedges of up to 90 percent in some important consumption products along with measures of complementarity between households' production and consumption suggest the potential for relatively large gains from deeper trade integration. Furthermore, an examination of a specific supply chain of tea highlights factors that help industries scale up, aided by institutions such as an organized auction and decent physical and legal infrastructure. However, districts alike in geography but located across international boundaries face different development prospects, suggesting that gains from reduced "thickness of borders" would not accrue automatically. Much rests on developing intrinsic industry competitiveness at home, including the reform of regulatory and business practices and infrastructural bottlenecks that prevent agglomeration of local economies.Publication Growth without Borders : A Regional Growth Pole Diagnostic for Southern Africa(Washington, DC, 2013-10)Several countries in Southern Africa have enormous potential to expand trade and mutually benefit from regional integration, and thus truly achieve 'growth without borders'. At the same time, several African countries are adopting growth pole strategies in order to deepen the economic linkages around the development of their natural resources and improve their competitiveness and connectivity to domestic and international markets. This report stems from economic sector work whose purpose was to identify potential growth poles across Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in three industries, agribusiness, mining, and tourism, that might benefit from improved regional integration. This report used geographic information systems (GIS) to identify potential growth poles based on the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI), market connectivity, revenue sources, and other input factors and then selected from that list those areas which might benefit from regional cooperation. This report provides background information, elaborates the concepts, details the spatial analysis framework, selects specific areas for a rapid assessment, summarizes findings, and outlines future work. The overarching purpose is not to explain or quantify the links between identified factors, but rather to find spatial correlation between factors in order to begin a discussion about defining a data driven way of finding suitable regional growth poles.Publication Institutional Arrangements for Transport Corridor Management in Sub-Saharan Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-10)Corridor efficiency is important to the competitiveness of most of the African economies, especially those that are landlocked. Corridors can be defined as a collection of routes linking several economic centers, countries and ports. While some are only road transport corridors, most of them include more than one mode of transport. The Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) places emphasis on the facilitation of inter-state trade along corridors. It particularly focuses on identifying impediments to the efficient movement of traffic and seeks to promote appropriate strategies for minimizing hurdles to such movement. This objective is also consistent with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Almaty Plan of Action. This concept paper reviews the legal and institutional options for establishing corridor management groups and proposes a framework for establishing such groups along all major transport corridors. Some of the lessons have emerged from the existing corridor management arrangements: (i) corridor groups interventions are problem solving and the operational procedures should encourage this objective and retain flexibility necessary to be responsive; (ii) working groups can be formed on an ad hoc basis to address specific issues and disbanded once the objective met; and (iii) the group organization should ensure public-private interaction at all levels. A three-tier corridor management institution is proposed for regional transport corridors without any arrangement. The institutional hierarchy would comprise a stakeholders group, a core group and a secretariat. Funding arrangements for existing corridor groups include membership fees, contributions by governments, traffic-based usage fees, or donor support. Generally, the funding mechanism of a corridor group would be influenced by its legal instrument. Once established, the group would be able to develop an action plan and deliver some results making it possible to introduce a usage-based funding mechanism such as a tonnage levy.Publication The Impact of Regional Liberalization and Harmonization in Road Transport Services : A Focus on Zambia and Lessons for Landlocked Ccountries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01)Based on a detailed empirical study, this paper argues that regional liberalization of trucking services has had an important effect on transport costs and tariffs for Zambia's economy. Zambia is a peculiar example in Southern Africa as it benefits from relatively low transport costs compared with other landlocked countries in Africa. This is mainly because of competition between Zambian and other regional, mainly South African, operators and because of South African investments in Zambia's trucking industry. As a result, the costs of operators registered in Zambia and South Africa are similar. The study also demonstrates that enhancing trucking interoperability in Southern Africa would significantly impact positively the Zambian trucking industry's competitiveness. The main measures to significantly increase trucking competitiveness in the region would more likely derive from reducing fuel costs in Zambia, improving border-post operations, and relaxing South African truck import rules.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The Journey Ahead(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31)The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.Publication South Asia Development Update, April 2024: Jobs for Resilience(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-02)South Asia is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) region over the next two years. This is largely thanks to robust growth in India, but growth is also expected to pick up in most other South Asian economies. However, growth in the near-term is more reliant on the public sector than elsewhere, whereas private investment, in particular, continues to be weak. Efforts to rein in elevated debt, borrowing costs, and fiscal deficits may eventually weigh on growth and limit governments' ability to respond to increasingly frequent climate shocks. Yet, the provision of public goods is among the most effective strategies for climate adaptation. This is especially the case for households and farms, which tend to rely on shifting their efforts to non-agricultural jobs. These strategies are less effective forms of climate adaptation, in part because opportunities to move out of agriculture are limited by the region’s below-average employment ratios in the non-agricultural sector and for women. Because employment growth is falling short of working-age population growth, the region fails to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking the demographic dividend, robust private investment, and workers’ ability to move out of agriculture. A range of policies could spur firm growth, including improved business climates and institutions, the removal of financial sector restrictions, and greater openness to trade and capital flows.Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.