Africa's Transport Infrastructure: Mainstreaming Maintenance and Management

by Ken Gwilliam

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821384565
Publisher:	World Bank Publications
Publication date:	03/11/2011
Series:	Directions in Development - Infrastructure
Pages:	574
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

About the AICD xix

Series Foreword xxi

About the Authors xxiii

Acknowledgments xxv

Abbreviations xxix

Chapter 1 The Legacy of History 1

Political History: Colonialism and Independence 1

A Consequence of History: A Distorted Transport Sector 3

The Outcome: High Costs, Poor Service, and Reduced Trade 6

Country Diversity and Uneven Economic Performance 10

A New-Millennium Renaissance 14

Notes 15

References 15

Chapter 2 Roads: The Burden of Maintenance 17

The Road Network 18

Road Infrastructure Performance 29

Institutions: Ongoing Reforms 37

Road Spending: A Problem of Execution 47

Freight Transport: Too Expensive 71

The Way Forward 77

Notes 79

References 80

Chapter 3 Railways: Not Pulling Their Weight 83

Africa's Rail History: Opening Up the Continent 83

A Sparse and Disconnected Network 85

Investment and Maintenance 89

The Market 91

Freight Tariffs: Increasingly Competitive 101

Why Are Railways Uncompetitive? 104

Institutional Arrangements 106

Operational Performance 115

Financial Performance 125

The Way Forward 132

Notes 134

References 137

Chapter 4 Airports and Air Transport: Policies for Growth 139

Airport Infrastructure 139

Operations 152

The Way Forward 176

Notes 177

References 179

Chapter 5 Ports and Shipping: Moving toward Modern Management Structures 181

Coping with Rapidly Changing Trade Patterns 181

The Institutional and Regulatory Framework 195

Infrastructure Development 206

Performance, Cost, and Quality 212

The Way Forward 219

Notes 222

References 223

Chapter 6 Urban Transport: Struggling with Growth 225

Infrastructure: Roads 227

Infrastructure: Rails 231

Institutions 232

Services 236

Fares 250

Financing and Subsidies 256

Regulation 260

The Way Forward 265

Notes 267

References 269

Chapter 7 Spending to Improve Connectivity 271

The Expenditure Model in Brief 272

A Detailed Look at the Model's Inputs 275

Applying the Model 284

Outputs of the Model 293

Insights from the Connectivity Analysis 306

Notes 308

References 309

Chapter 8 Financing: Filling the Gaps 311

Expenditures 312

What Can Be Done about the Shortfalls? 322

The Residual Funding Gap 347

The Way Forward 350

Notes 352

References 353

Chapter 9 Governance: The Key to Progress 355

The Context of National Governance 356

Traditions and Attitudes 357

Institutions 363

Capacity 371

The Way Forward 375

Notes 377

References 378

Chapter 10 Conclusion: An Agenda for Action 381

Critical Transport Policy Issues 382

Improving Governance 394

Expenditure Requirements 400

Notes 405

References 405

Appendix 1 Introduction 407

Appendix 1a AICD background Documents Relevant to the Transport Sector 407

Appendix Ib Country Typology for Study Countries 409

Reference 409

Appendix 2 Roads 411

Appendix 2a Road Data Sources and Analysis 411

Appendix 2b Basic Country Data for the Set of 40 Countries 416

Appendix 2c Classified Road Network Length for 40 Countries 418

Appendix 2d Road Network Densities for 40 Countries 420

Appendix 2e Road Network Length by Surface Class and Network Type for 40 Countries 422

Appendix 2f Average Annual Daily Traffic by Road Type for 40 Countries 424

Appendix 2g Distribution of Networks by Traffic Level for 40 Countries 425

Appendix 2h Vehicle Utilization of Roads by Surface Class and by Passenger and Freight for 40 Countries 427

Appendix 2i Classified Road Network Condition by Network Type for 40 Countries 428

Appendix 2j Road Accident Rates for Countries in Africa 430

Appendix 2k Road Maintenance Initiative Institutional Indicators, September 2007 434

Appendix 2l Selected Standards by Network Type, Surface Class, and Traffic Level for 40 Countries 437

Appendix 2m Preservation Requirements for Securing the Custom Standard over a 20-Year Period for 40 Countries 439

Appendix 2n Preservation Requirements for Securing the Optimal Standard over a 20-Year Period for 40 Countries 443

Appendix 2o Custom Standard 20-Year Preservation Needs by Work Type for 40 Countries 443

Appendix 2p Optimal Standard 20-Year Preservation Needs by Work Type for 40 Countries 445

References 447

Appendix 3 Rail Transport 449

Appendix 3a Rail Networks in Africa 450

Appendix 3b Production Structure of African Railways, Average 1995-2005 452

Appendix 3c Rail Passenger Traffic 454

Appendix 3d Pricing and Institutions 456

Appendix 3e Factor Productivity 458

Railway Names 460

Reference 461

Appendix 4 Airports and Air Transport 463

Appendix 4a Data Sources for Air Transport Analysis 463

Appendix 4b Airports 466

Appendix 4c City Pairs Served 467

Appendix 4d Installation of Ground-Based Navigational Aids in Africa 469

Appendix 4e Total Capacity Supplied 470

Appendix 4f Costs of Airport Construction versus Rehabilitation 472

Appendix 4g Domestic Air Transport Markets in Africa, 2007 473

Appendix 4h Market Concentration, 2007 474

Appendix 4i Trends in Aircraft Age 475

Appendix 4j Trends in Aircraft Size 477

Appendix 4k Safety Assessments, 2007 480

Appendix 5 Ports and Shipping 483

Appendix 5a Annual Traffic 484

Appendix 5b Institutional Characteristics 486

Appendix 5c Infrastructure Facilities 488

Appendix 5d Cargo-Hand ling Performance Indicators 491

Appendix 5e Port Access and Landside Quality 493

Appendix 5f Average Port Costs and Charges 496

Appendix 6 Expenditure Needs 499

Appendix 6 Costs of Achieving Targets of Pragmatic Scenario, by Expenditure Purpose 499

Appendix 7 Financing 501

Appendix 7a Transport Spending and Finance Sources, by Country 502

Appendix 7b Potential Efficiency Gains 504

Appendix 7c Agency and Total Social Benefits of Timely Road Maintenance 506

Appendix 7d Closing the Gap 513

Note 515

Index 517

Boxes

1.1 The Economic Costs of Political Fragmentation: The Case of Guinea 5

2.1 Road Concessions in Africa 50

4.1 Air Afrique 156

5.1 Inland Waterways: A Neglected Asset 186

5.2 The Nigeria Port Concessions 203

6.1 Introducing Dedicated Infrastructure for Bus Transit 235

6.2 Financing Large vs. Small Buses in Nairobi 258

7.1 Mixing Scenarios 299

9.1 The Kenyan Government's Purchase of Luxury Vehicles for Official Use 358