Beuran, Monica; Mahihenni, Mohamed Hadi; Raballand, Gael ; Refas, Salim;
World Bank
Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 6014
Marzo 2012
Long cargo dwell times in ports are a critical issue in Sub-Saharan African countries since they result in slow import processes and are bound to dramatically reduce trade. The main objective of this study is to analyze long dwell times' causes in ports in Sub-Saharan Africa from a shipper's perspective. The findings point to the crucial importance of private sector practices and incentives. The authors argue in the case of Sub-Saharan African countries that private operators, rather than being advocates of reforms in this area, might be responsible for the failures of many of these initiatives. It seems that in Sub-Saharan Africa importers' and freight forwarders' professionalism, cash constraints and operators' strategies are some of the factors that have a major impact on cargo dwell time. Low competency, cash constraints and low storage tariffs explain why most importers have little incentive to reduce cargo dwell time since in most cases, this would increase their input costs. However, monopolists/cartels may have a stronger incentive to reduce cargo dwell time but only in order to maximize their profit (and would not adjust prices downward).
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Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Africa's Transport Infrastructure
World Bank
March 2011
This book presents and analyzes the results of a comprehensive collection of data on the extent and condition of transport infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa, identifies the reasons for poor performance, and estimates future financing needs.
The transport facilities of Sub-Saharan Africa were built primarily for the colonial exploitation of mineral and agricultural resources. The chief goal of road and rail networks was to link mines, plantations, and other sites for the exploitation and transformation on natural resources to ports, rather than to provide general connectivity within the region.
The road network of 1.75 million kilometers exhibits a low density with respect to population. Its average spatial density is very low by world standards. The network carries low average traffic levels. Even so, because most African countries have a low GDP, the fiscal burden of the network is the highest among world regions, maintenance is underfinanced, and road conditions are on average poor, while road accident rates are very high.
Attempts to improve the financing of maintenance through “second generation road funds” have met with some success, but there remain serious weaknesses in implementation. Road freight transport is fragmented, but cartelized, with high rates and high profits.
Railways were also built mainly as for the exportation of minerals and crops. With the exception of two or three very specialized bulk mineral lines, the traffic volumes are low, and the railways have been in financial decline since the 1960s. Concessioning of the lines to private operators has improved performance, but governments often impose unachievable requirements on the companies, and investment remains inadequate for long-term sustainability.
Most of the 260 airports that provide year-round commercial service in Sub-Saharan Africa have adequate runway capacity, though some of the larger airports suffer from a shortage of terminal capacity. More than a quarter of the runways are in marginal or poor condition, and air traffic control and navigation facilities are below international standards. Though airport charges are high, few airports are truly financially sustainable. Three national carriers are quite successful, but most are small and barely sustainable. Protection persists in the domestic and intercontinental markets, but the international market in the region has been effectively liberalized.
The safety record is poor. Most ports are small by international standards. Many are still publicly owned and suffer from inadequate equipment and poor productivity. Only a few highly specialized ports, including private ports integrated with the extraction companies, meet the highest international standards Costs and charges are high. But there is a trend toward concessioning of facilities to large groups specializing in international container terminals and port operations. Fortunately the shipping market is now deregulated.
Urban transport suffers from some infrastructure deficiencies, particularly in the condition of urban roads. But the main problems of the sector are associated with the fragmented and poorly regulated nature of most urban bus markets. Finance for large buses is very difficult to obtain.
In all modes the situation is made worse by failures of governance in both the provision and regulation of infrastructure. The overall deficit in financing for infrastructure is estimated using a model based on the application of hypothesized standards of connectivity for all modal networks and facilities. Once the amount of infrastructure needed to meet those standards was calculated, these “requirements” were compared with existing stocks and the costs of making the transition over a ten-year period were calculated.
A “base” scenario used standards similar to those pertaining in developed regions, while a “pragmatic” scenario applied lower standards. In a separate exercise, the actual average expenditures on transport infrastructure from all sources were researched. This allowed the funding gap to be deduced by subtraction. The results showed that, excluding official development assistance, no country spent enough to meet the base standard, and that even with aid there remained substantial deficits in maintenance funding in many countries, with the worst situations found in the low-income, politically fragile group of countries.
URL
Bajar documento
March 2011
This book presents and analyzes the results of a comprehensive collection of data on the extent and condition of transport infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa, identifies the reasons for poor performance, and estimates future financing needs.
The transport facilities of Sub-Saharan Africa were built primarily for the colonial exploitation of mineral and agricultural resources. The chief goal of road and rail networks was to link mines, plantations, and other sites for the exploitation and transformation on natural resources to ports, rather than to provide general connectivity within the region.
The road network of 1.75 million kilometers exhibits a low density with respect to population. Its average spatial density is very low by world standards. The network carries low average traffic levels. Even so, because most African countries have a low GDP, the fiscal burden of the network is the highest among world regions, maintenance is underfinanced, and road conditions are on average poor, while road accident rates are very high.
Attempts to improve the financing of maintenance through “second generation road funds” have met with some success, but there remain serious weaknesses in implementation. Road freight transport is fragmented, but cartelized, with high rates and high profits.
Railways were also built mainly as for the exportation of minerals and crops. With the exception of two or three very specialized bulk mineral lines, the traffic volumes are low, and the railways have been in financial decline since the 1960s. Concessioning of the lines to private operators has improved performance, but governments often impose unachievable requirements on the companies, and investment remains inadequate for long-term sustainability.
Most of the 260 airports that provide year-round commercial service in Sub-Saharan Africa have adequate runway capacity, though some of the larger airports suffer from a shortage of terminal capacity. More than a quarter of the runways are in marginal or poor condition, and air traffic control and navigation facilities are below international standards. Though airport charges are high, few airports are truly financially sustainable. Three national carriers are quite successful, but most are small and barely sustainable. Protection persists in the domestic and intercontinental markets, but the international market in the region has been effectively liberalized.
The safety record is poor. Most ports are small by international standards. Many are still publicly owned and suffer from inadequate equipment and poor productivity. Only a few highly specialized ports, including private ports integrated with the extraction companies, meet the highest international standards Costs and charges are high. But there is a trend toward concessioning of facilities to large groups specializing in international container terminals and port operations. Fortunately the shipping market is now deregulated.
Urban transport suffers from some infrastructure deficiencies, particularly in the condition of urban roads. But the main problems of the sector are associated with the fragmented and poorly regulated nature of most urban bus markets. Finance for large buses is very difficult to obtain.
In all modes the situation is made worse by failures of governance in both the provision and regulation of infrastructure. The overall deficit in financing for infrastructure is estimated using a model based on the application of hypothesized standards of connectivity for all modal networks and facilities. Once the amount of infrastructure needed to meet those standards was calculated, these “requirements” were compared with existing stocks and the costs of making the transition over a ten-year period were calculated.
A “base” scenario used standards similar to those pertaining in developed regions, while a “pragmatic” scenario applied lower standards. In a separate exercise, the actual average expenditures on transport infrastructure from all sources were researched. This allowed the funding gap to be deduced by subtraction. The results showed that, excluding official development assistance, no country spent enough to meet the base standard, and that even with aid there remained substantial deficits in maintenance funding in many countries, with the worst situations found in the low-income, politically fragile group of countries.
URL
Bajar documento
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
World Transport, Policy & Practice Vol 17
Eco-logica
Volume 17
May-June 2011
Vol 17.1
Vol 17.2
Volume 17
May-June 2011
Vol 17.1
- Editorial - John Whitelegg
- Interventions to Reduce Car Use in Towns and Cities
- Call for Evidence: House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee - Eric Britton
- Too True To Be Good? A response to Morton and Mees (2010)- Ian Ker
- Road Traffic Congestion Management and Parking Infrastructural Planning in Metropolitan Lagos: The Linkage - Joshua A. Odeleye, PhD
Vol 17.2
- Editorial - John Whitelegg
- Street Conflict, Power and Promise: Livable Streets: Humanising the Auto-Mobility Paradigm
- A New Foreword for the Second Edition of Livable Streets - Bruce S. Appleyard, PhD
- Driven To Excess: Impacts of Motor Vehicles on the Quality of Life of Residents of Three Streets in Bristol UK - Joshua Hart and Prof. Graham Parkhurst
- ‘Peak Car Use’: Understanding the Demise of Automobile Dependence - Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Rural Road Investment Efficiency: Lessons from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Uganda
Authors: Raballand, Gael; Macchi, Patricia
World Bank
Directions in development infrastructure
March 2010
Access the book
World Bank
Directions in development infrastructure
March 2010
This book was written because at the time when Development Partners focus especially on rural mobility, it is worth trying to know how to achieve better aid effectiveness in rural transport. So far, most Development Partners and governments in SSA have relied on two overarching assumptions, which have led to massive road investments: (i) most households in rural areas in Africa are not connected to markets and therefore need a road passable for a truck (all the more as they are remote), (ii) roads with high level of service are crucial to achieve high economic impact. We demonstrate in this book that these assumptions may be questioned in many cases in SSA. Based on data collection from various sources in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Uganda, we demonstrate that from a cost-benefit perspective, the additional cost of extending an all-weather road 2 more km to the farmer??s door outweigh the benefits in most cases. Therefore, a one size fits all approach, such as achieving the Rural Access Index, is not wishful from an aid effectiveness perspective. We should realize that a seven-meter road may not be required in most rural areas in SSA. Some pilots should be supported locally to potentially meet the demand for Intermediate Means of Transport (although any success may not be replicable to another region or country). The last mile should not be a road for a truck but the secondary network, which link secondary cities, should be in good condition (paved or unpaved) to enable truck fleet efficiency and competition. Finally, donor coordination is a must to avoid for example the rehabilitation of rural roads not connected to passable secondary roads.
Access the book
Friday, December 11, 2009
BRT city examples
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
November 2009
Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System
Chris Kost
Presentation
Rea Vaya!
Johannesburg, South Africa
Annie Weinstock
Presentation
November 2009
Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System
Chris Kost
Presentation
Rea Vaya!
Johannesburg, South Africa
Annie Weinstock
Presentation
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Revising the roads investment strategy in rural areas : an application for Uganda
Policy Research Working Paper 5036
World Bank
September 2009
Based on extensive data collection in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that the rural access index, as defined today, should not be a government objective because the benefit of such investment is minimal, whereas achieving rural accessibility at less than 2 kilometers would require massive investments that are not sustainable. Taking into account the fact that plot size is limited on average to less than 1 hectare, a farmer’s transport requirement is usually minimal and does not necessarily involve massive investments in infrastructure. This is because most farmers cannot fully load a truck or pay for this service and, even if productivity were to increase significantly, the production threshold would not be reached by most individual farmers. Therefore, in terms of public policy, maintenance of the existing rural roads rather than opening new roads should be given priority; the district feeder road allocation maintenance formula should be revised to take into account economic potential and, finally, policy makers should devote their attention to innovative marketing models from other countries where smallholder loads are consolidated through private-based consolidators.
Acceder al documento
World Bank
September 2009
Based on extensive data collection in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that the rural access index, as defined today, should not be a government objective because the benefit of such investment is minimal, whereas achieving rural accessibility at less than 2 kilometers would require massive investments that are not sustainable. Taking into account the fact that plot size is limited on average to less than 1 hectare, a farmer’s transport requirement is usually minimal and does not necessarily involve massive investments in infrastructure. This is because most farmers cannot fully load a truck or pay for this service and, even if productivity were to increase significantly, the production threshold would not be reached by most individual farmers. Therefore, in terms of public policy, maintenance of the existing rural roads rather than opening new roads should be given priority; the district feeder road allocation maintenance formula should be revised to take into account economic potential and, finally, policy makers should devote their attention to innovative marketing models from other countries where smallholder loads are consolidated through private-based consolidators.
Acceder al documento
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
GRSPNEWS
Issue 25 Spring 2009
Global Road Safety Partnership
Inside:
Global Road Safety Partnership
Inside:
- Engaging communities and youth with helmets in Thailand
- South Africa takes on a dangerous highway
- New seat-belt manual released
- GRSP leads fleet management manual
- Special focus - Brazil: Building an advanced road safety culture
- Around GRSP’s World
- News Flash
- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) extends GRSP hosting agreement
- GRSP Annual Meeting, June 23-25, Geneva, Switzerland
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