| Progress
Report On The Implementation of UNTACDA II Programme/Projects, July 1997 ABBREVIATION C = Project completed or terminated F = Ongoing project and fully financed O = Ongoing project and partially financed P = Partially financed project but not started yet Y = Fully financed project but not started yet S = Project of which financing was sought A = Project abandoned or under review N = Project without information on its level of implementation EXP = Expansion HRD = Human Resource and Institutional Development MAF = Manufacturing, Research and Development MAG = Management MRU = Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Upgrading RDV = Rural Development STD = Studies CE = Central African Subregion ES = Eastern and Southern African Subregion NR = North African Subregion WE = West African subregion RE = Regional
I. INTRODUCTION 1. Background Since 1991, African countries, with the support of their development partners, endeavour to implement a regional wide development programme for the transport and communications sector, namely "the Second United Nations Transport and Communications Decade for Africa (UNTACDA II)". The main goal of UNTACDA II programme is the establishment of an integrated transport and communications system as a basis for the physical integration of Africa, to facilitate the movement of national and international traffic in order to foster trade, and the achievement of self-sustained economic development. Since the adoption of the programme in 1991, all parties involved in the attainment of the above goal have individually and collectively deployed efforts to implement the programme. In 1991, six hundred sixty nine projects were approved for the first phase of the programme. Later on , in 1993, at its 14th meeting held in November 1993, the then Resource Mobilization Committee approved 39 additional projects, bringing the total number of approved projects to 708. The Conference of African Ministers of Transport, Communications and Planning, in its Resolution No. ECA/UNTACDA/RES.93/89, requested ECA to review the approved projects and prepare annually a status report for dissemination to all partners. This progress report which is one of a series of reports, is prepared in response to that request. 2. Scope and methodology The report on the implementation of the UNTACDA II Programme/projects consists of analysis of the level of execution of projects included in the Decade programme on the basis of available information received from most of the partners and/or collected through ECA field missions. The methodology used for this exercise was to send a questionnaire to all partners and undertake field missions to selected countries and organizations. For the purpose of analysis, all projects are classified under the following categories: a. Projects completed b. Ongoing projects with full financing c. Ongoing projects with partial financing d. Projects partially financed but not started yet e. Projects fully financed but not started yet f. Projects for which financing was sought g. Projects which were abandoned or under review h. Projects for which there was no information on their status of implementation.
II. ANALYSIS OF THE STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECADE PROGRAMME/PROJECTS 1. Synthesis of the analysis of projects implementation. In July 1997, out of the 708 projects approved for inclusion in the UNTACDA II programme, information on the status of implementation was received for 550 projects (i.e. 77.7% of the total approved projects), costing US$7,466.98 million (i.e. 56.44% of the total cost of the programme). The analysis of the information on these projects reveals that: i) 111 projects (i.e. 20.18% of the monitored projects) were completed with a financial outlay of US 1,083.55 million (i.e. 14.51% of the cost of the monitored projects). ii) 184 projects (33.45% of the projects monitored) costing US$5,449.51 million were under implementation. Among these, 123 projects were fully financed for US$3,016.04 million, while 61 projects were partially financed for US$871.03 million. Hence, the total estimated amount mobilised for the ongoing projects under implementation was US$ 3,887.07 million (i.e. 71.33% of their total cost). iii) 52 projects costing US$993.84 million were fully or partially financed, but their implementation had not started yet. Among these, 33 projects were fully financed for US$742.99 million; and 19 projects were partially financed for US$44.70 million. The total amount mobilised for this category of projects is estimated at US$797.69 million. iv) 144 projects costing US$2,644.46 million had not attracted any financing, while v) 59 projects costing US$183.14 million were abandoned or were under review. From this analysis, it appears that the total amount so far mobilized for the monitored project is US$5,758.31 million i.e. 77.12% of the total cost of the 550 monitored projects or 43.53% of the total cost (US$13,229.57 million) of the 708 approved projects. 2. Status of implementation of programme/projects by subsector
As shown in table 1 below the execution of projects by subsector is as follows: Out the 111 completed projects, 30 are for roads and road transport subsector, 25 for railways subsector, 17 for telecommunications, 14 for air transport subsector and 7 for maritime transport. As regards the ongoing projects (fully and partially financed), 76 projects are for roads and road transport subsector, 42 for telecommunications subsector, 18 for air transport and 12 for railways transport subsector. Table 1: Status of implementation of projects by subsector (in number of projects)
Table 2: Estimated cost of the 708 projects included in the programme by subsector (in million US$)
a: Estimated cost; b: Funds mobilized The analysis of the financing of projects monitored as indicated in table 2 reveals that the roads and road transport subsector have mobilized US$2333.43 million; Telecommunications US$1522.87 million; railways US$949.19 million. Inland water transport with 1 project completed and 5 ongoing projects, out of a total of 17 projects, has mobilized US$377.63 million; air transport subsector has mobilized US$228.88 million and Maritime Ports transport obtained US$182.55 million. 3. Status of implementation of the programme by type of projects For the purpose of analysis of implementation of the programme by the types of projects, all projects were classified as shown in table 3: national (372 projects, i.e. 52.54% of the total approved); subregional projects (224 projects, i.e. 31.64% of the total approved) and regional projects (112 projects, i.e. 15.82% of the total approved projects).
Table 3: Status of implementation of programme by the type of projects (number of projects)
This table indicates that out of the 111 projects completed, 62 projects were national, 34 were subregional, while 15 projects were regional. It also shows that out of the 184 ongoing projects (123 fully financed and 61 partially financed), 111 were national, 48 were subregional, while only 12 were regional. Table 4: Status of projects funding by their impact (million US$)
As regards the level of funding of the programme by type of projects, as shown in table 4, the projects with national impact have gathered US$3764.09 million, the subregional ones have mobilized US$1654.74 million while US$ 339.48 million were mobilized for the regional projects. It can be concluded from the above that as a shift in the programme, national projects received more financing than the subregional and regional ones. 4. Level of implementation of projects by main themes The analysis under this item has been made through the grouping of projects around the following 7 main themes or subprogrammes, namely: (i) Expansion; (ii) Human resource Development; (iii) Manufacture; (iv) Management; (v) Maintenance, Rehabilitation and upgrading (vi) Rural development and (vii) studies. Table 5 below gives the distribution of different projects by the 7 themes and the level of implementation. As it may be noticed, the themes "Expansion, Maintenance & Rehabilitation, Studies, Management and Human Resource development "gather more projects than others.
Table 5: Status of implementation by main themes (number of projects)
As shown in table 6 in the analysis of the projects financed by themes, investment projects which offer guarantee of return to financing institutions have been able to mobilise sufficient funds for their implementation. In this regard, the "Expansion" projects offer a good example as they succeeded to mobilize US$2593.94 million. The "Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Upgrading" projects mobilized US$ 2313.25 million and "Human resource Development" projects mobilized US$274.87 million. Table 6: Funding status of projects by themes
x: Number of projects; y: Funds mobilized (million US$) Table 7 highlights more clearly the situation as regards the implementation of the programme at subsectoral level. It indicates the areas in which activities have been undertaken in each subsector. It may be noticed that telecommunications have invested most in "Expansion" programme/projects, while most of the financing for roads and road transport and railways went to "Maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrading" programme/projects.
Table 7: Financial status of subsectorial projects by themes
a = Number of projects by theme; b = Funds mobilized (million US$).
5. Implementation of the programme/projects at subregional level Table 8 indicates that at subregional level, the Eastern and southern Africa subregion has 46 projects completed (i.e. 41.44% of the total projects completed), 81 ongoing projects from the 184 (i.e. 44.02%). West Africa gathers 37 completed projects out of the 111 completed in total and 58 ongoing projects (i.e. 31.52% of the total ongoing projects). Table 8: Status of implementation of projects by subregion
(in number of projects) III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From overall assessment of the Decade projects; it can be concluded that even if the programme has not been fully implemented, the findings from the monitored projects confirm that tremendous efforts have been deployed in mobilizing funds for the implementation of the programme/projects. The results are encouraging, because, for the 550 monitored projects, 77.2% of the required funds have been mobilized. This was achieved in spite ofthe difficult environment in which the programme was launched. Based on the analysis of available information, African countries have deployed big efforts in mobilizing funds for national projects. As indicated in table 4, more than 65% of the funds mobilized were for national projects. For example, funds mobilized for national projects amounted to US$3,764.09 million; while the subregional and regional ones have mobilized US$1,654.74 million and US$ 339.48 million respectively. This stands as a proof of the problem faced in mobilizing funds for regional projects and the little priority accorded to this type of projects by countries and donors. It has also been observed that most of the projects which have received financing are investment projects, as compared to projects related to policy which did not receive the required attention. As indicated in table 6, out of the US$5758.31 million of total funds mobilized for 550 monitored projects, US$2,593.94 million and US$2,313.25 million (i.e.US$4,907.19 million in total or 85.22% of the total funds mobilized) were for the "expansion" and "maintenance, rehabilitation and up grading" projects respectively, while the policy projects like the "Human resource Development" or "Management policy" projects only succeeded to mobilize US$274.87 million and US$161.15 million (US$436.02 million or 7.57% of the total funds mobilized) for a total of 148 projects out of the 550 monitored (26%). In spite of various difficulties, it is encouraging to note that, efforts have been deployed to secure financing. However, the necessity of implementing the policy projects, especially the reform projects, should be recognized, as a single area whereby most actions are needed to revert the course of things. Another fact is the high number of projects (51) for which funds have been secured (US$787.69 million), but for which implementation has not started yet. it is therefore recommended that efforts be deployed to implement those projects. Finally, the high number of projects (158 i.e. 22.32% of the total 708 approved projects) for which no information was made available on their level of execution should not be ignored. An appeal is therefore launched to all concerned partners, countries and organizations to do their best in providing to ECA, as often as possible, with information on the situation of implementation of the Decade projects, as well as the amount mobilized for those partially financed projects. |
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