1. In order to achieve the long term objective of the Decade, agencies individually and collectively have developed cross sectoral regional programmes/projects which include the Human Resources and Institutional Development (HRID), Regional Transport Data Base, Trans-African Highway Bureau and Manufacturing of Transport Equipment. The purpose of the present report is to inform the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of Ministers of Transport and Communications, on the status of implementation of these projects and to seek its guidance for their continuation and successful implementation.

2. The report contains one chapter on each of the above programme in which we have described what has been done and have suggested actions to be undertaken.

3. The studies conducted by ECA and several institutions aimed at developing transport and communications in Africa revealed that very little is known about and very little done to develop human resources, build institutions and increase their impact on the sectors' performance. The studies also revealed that the deteriorating performance of the transport and communications sector in Africa was due mainly to inadequate or even absence of policies on institutional management and development. These conclusions raised much concern among donors and governments and underscored the importance of human resources development and institutional building in the sector.

4. This situation led many organizations to prepare various projects with special emphasis on human resources development and institutional reform. An overall project was prepared by ECA aimed at enhancing management mechanisms in the transport and communications sector.

5. Most of these projects were submitted for financing to UNDP which had shown great interest in human resources development and institutional building. In order to avoid duplication of efforts in connection with the various projects, and to identify gaps to be filled, UNDP organized and chaired a seminar in Debre-Zeit, Ethiopia, in 1988, on manpower and training for development of the transport and communications sector in Africa. The participants, namely, the World Bank, IMO, ILO, ICAO, UNCTAD and ECA considered the role institutional and human resources management could play in the development and efficient operation of transport enterprises in Africa. The seminar agreed that there was a need for human resources development and institutional building in the sector.

6. Following this seminar and given the interdependence of transport of communications, a unique effort was made to establish inter-agency cooperation by the World Bank, IMO, ILO, ICAO, UNCTAD, ITU and ECA. This led to the design, finalization and launching of a regional project on human resources development and institutional building in the transport and communications sector.

7. The first phase of the programme involved:

8. Several lessons and facts were drawn from the case studies and seminars. These are that:

9. The main facts found were that:

10. Implementation of the HRID programme started within the framework of the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Programme (SSATP) designed by ECA and the World Bank and which had seven components, namely: the road maintenance initiative (RMI) now known as the road management initiative; the rural travel and transport programme (RTTP), railway management, urban transport, trade and transport, human resources and institutional development (HRID) and the transport database project.

11. A prospective analysis of the SSATP programme shows that Phase I of the HRID:

12. On the basis of the lessons mentioned above, a programme called phase II was designed to monitor implementation of the actions taken. The programme's objectives were:

(i) Development objective

13. To assist African countries in training human resources and building institutions in the transport and communications sector in order to improve the sector's efficiency and enable it to meet their needs.

(ii) Immediate objective No. 1:

14. To conduct a pragmatic research to identify the methodologies, policies and regulations necessary for improving performance, and determine possibilities; also to identify strategies for formulating programmes to assist African countries in making policy changes, undertaking institutional reforms, developing human resources and improving management.

(iii) Immediate objective No. 2:

15. To assist some countries in designing and finalizing projects restructuring the sectors and/or modes through a four-year pilot project. In addition to this, obtain the most useful facts from the policy reform and restructuring of institutions and disseminate them as widely as possible among countries of the region.

(iv) Immediate objective No. 3:

16. Assist African countries to prepare for the restructuring of their individual modes or entire transport and communications sector, draw up their reform policies and restructure their executing agencies and departments, using the experience gained and facts drawn from pilot projects executed in some countries.

17. After defining and adopting the programme of the first phase, the project's steering committee, using the agreed criteria, selected four pilot countries, namely: Madagascar, Mali, Sierra Leone and Swaziland. The cost of the programme was estimated at $US 480,000. Then, UNDP was informed to assist in the search for funds for the project. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to obtain any funding to date. Furthermore, the political crisis in some of the pilot countries made it impossible to continue the search for financing. However, under the SSATP programme, it was stated that the initiatives undertaken included institutional building, hence the programme designed for phase II of the human resources and institutional development programme should be integrated and financed under the SSATP projects which currently are: the road management initiative, railway management, urban transport, trade and transport and the rural travel and transport programme (RTTP). Before political crisis broke in Sierra Leone, the country had organized seminars on policy reforms and had designed a programme to facilitate the return of national experts working as expatriates in other countries.

18. Participants are requested to note the information given in the preceding paragraphs and to suggest to ECA follow-up actions which could be carried out under the UNTACDA II action plan. In this regard, ECA would like to recommend that although implementation of activities could be done under specific component of SSATP, a sensitization effort and dissemination of best practices at regional level should be undertaken as well as training of government and private staff in order to upgrade skill. This could lead to the establishment of training centre of excellence in the field of transport and communications in one or two universities/institutions in Africa.

19. The Development of a Transport Data Base Project (DTDB) in Sub-Sahara Africa was identified in the late 1980s as a key means of assisting not only increased performance in the transport sector but the economic development of African countries in general. The initial project document was signed in April 1990 with an expected start up date of July 1990. The projected UNDP contribution was US$595,800. The primary development objective of the DTDB project has been to improve the efficiency of performance in the transport sector in sub-Saharan Africa by increasing the availability of transport data and performance indicators. The need to assure the availability of such data was well presented in the project document as a major prerequisite for strengthening the capacity of respective institutions and user groups in the sector.

20. The actual start-up of the project was deferred until October 1990. Between 1991 and 1995 the budget and/or programme to be addressed by the project was amended. The focus of these revision included budgetary modifications as well as staffing and phasing issues. As a result of the revisions the budget was progressively increased to US$744,356, and the completion date for Phase I of the project was extended through August 1994.

21. Key events associated with Phase I included a study prepared by consultants under a preliminary stage, a Launching Seminar for the second stage held 15-18 June 1993; and a Closing Seminar for Phase I held 5-7 July 1994; financing from other donors enabled the launching of national programs in eight pilot countries in the interim between these two seminars. The final project output, a proposal for a successor project prepared by the UNECA, was submitted 11 April 1995.

22. The first phase of the Regional Transport Data Base was completed as scheduled with all the outputs delivered as planned. The project proposal for phase two of the programme which was finalized after the meeting of Ministers of Transport and Communication held in March 1995 was submitted to UNDP in July 1995 for consideration but did not secure UNDP financing. It was, therefore, not possible to invite more countries for inclusion in phase II of the programme because the second phase could not be launched according to the original plan without adequate resources.

23. At national levels ECA, in 1995 had invited confirmation from countries which had expressed interests in joining programme namely: Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria and Sudan. These were the countries which expressed interest in joining phase II of the programme, but since funding for the second phase was not secured ECA prepared a substitute programme on Harmonization and Networking of Transport Data at National Levels for dissemination through national workshops. Nigeria already benefited from the programme through a joint workshop conducted in March 1996 by ECA and the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Transports.

24. The main outcome of the Nigeria Seminar was the establishment of a national task-force under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the National Institute of Transport and Technology (NITT); with the objective of consolidating the outcome of the seminar for the establishment of a national transport data base. Consultations are in progress with Cameroon and Guinea for a similar national workshop.

25. ECA had also given advisory services to Namibia on how to set up a national transport data bank covering all transport modes, following a visit to ECA by a representative of the Namibian Ministry of Transport for consultation on options for establishment of a national data base on transport and communications.

26. The Phase I pilot countries which expressed willingness to remain pilot cases for phase II programme namely: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali, Mozambique, Lesotho, Senegal and Uganda have progressed, at different levels, with the consolidation of their achievements of their phase I activities in the improvement of data collection, the harmonization of transport statistics and the calculation of performance indicators. With the exception of Burundi, other countries have benefited from ECA missions aimed at assisting the countries in solving various transport statistics problems.

27. Progress made at regional levels include the evaluation of phase one of the project which was carried out in July 1995 by the World Bank as the executing agency for that phase.

28. A special report on the ECA Transport Data Base Programme with special reference to roads sub-sector was prepared by ECA in June 1995. The report was presented to participants of the Conference on African Highways - The Road Ahead which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 23 - 25 October l995. Following the outcome and recommendations of the Congress, ECA and IRF formulated a joint project proposal for roads and road transport titled "The African Road Data Bank (ARDB)" for an initial amount of US$506,000 to cover implementation of the project for the 1996-1997 period. The proposal was submitted to ADB for consideration but to date no response has been received from the ADB not in a position to finance the project. The project proposal is currently with ACP for considerations. To facilitate the successful implementation of the ECA/IRF project, an agreement on co-operation between ECA and IRF in the implementation of the project was also prepared.

29. Harmonization of achievements of phase one of the project with other subregional and regional activities also continued throughout the reporting period. In this regard, ECA has consulted with SATCC on the harmonization of the SADC subregional data base to be established by SATCC as the latter is currently implementing a data base project for its 12 member States.

30. ECA has assisted the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) in the formulation of terms of reference for the establishment of a PMAESA ports data base for its member ports. Preparatory work by ECA is in progress to implement the project proposal in phases starting with two PMAESA ports, namely, the ports of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Maputo, Mozambique.

31. The Gabonese Railways which has been developing Statistical Yearbook for the Union of African Railways (UAR) has also benefited from consultations with ECA on the harmonization and standardization of railways statistics data collection methodologies. Initial consultations between ECA and UMA is in the formation stages regarding UMA's desire to establish a transport data base for its member States based on ECA's experience.

32. Lessons learnt from the progress made during the reporting period suggest that recommendations for future activities of the project should be as follows:

33. In a continued effort to physically integrate the African continent and facilitate intercountry travel and trade, the United Nations Economic Commission for africa established the Trans-African Highway Bureau (TAHB) in 1971, within its then Transport, Communications and Tourism Division. The Bureau, through the collaboration of cooperating industrial countries, carried out studies and surveys leading to the construction and improvement of some of the substandard sections in the Trans-African Highway network. The Bureau also monitored in addition to feasibility studies, subregional studies on non-physical barriers to trade and travel along these highways and their feeder roads.

34. In 1980 the ECA successfully established the Lagos-Mombasa Trans-African Highway Authority (TAHA) complete with its own secretariat based in Bangui, Central African Republic. In 1981 it established the Cairo-Gaborone Trans-East African Highway authority (TEAHA) including the Inter-State Facilitation Commission and its three working groups to work on matters relating to customs, immigration and traffic regulations with ECA servicing as secretariat.

35. During its second regular meeting held in cairo, Egypt from 3 to 5 March 1983, the Governing Council of the Cairo-Gaborone Trans-East African Highway Authority reviewed the proposed administrative arrangements of its authority and, based on a Kenya position paper and ensuing discussions, and directed ECA to study and submit alternative proposals for administrative arrangements, taking into account the current economic situation and other prevailing considerations.

36. The first combined meeting of Trans-African Highway Authorities was held in Addis Ababa from 6 to 10 October 1986. The meeting in its resolution (E/ECA/TRANS/41) called upon ECA to provide the infrastructure and technical assistance required to re-establish the Bureau and requested UNDP to provide financial assistance during its fourth cycle programme for the establishment and running of the Bureau with the objective to promote and accelerate the physical integration of Africa through, inter alia, the maintenance of the existing and development of the remaining substandard, non existent inter-State Trans-African Highway links and their respective feeder.

37. The sixth, seventh and eighth meetings of the Conference of African Ministers of Transport, Communications and Planning held from 1988 to 1992 endorsed the reactivation and adoption of the Bureau at ECA headquarters.

38. The Trans-African Highway Authority (Lagos-Mombasa) Governing Council held its ninth ordinary meeting from 10 to 11 April 1989 at ECA Headquarters in Addis Ababa. Pursuant to the resolution 02/88/TAHA adopted at Yaounde on 11 March 1988, whereby the TAHA Director General was directed to seek ECA's assistance on the rationalization of the management of the TAHA Secretariat, and based on ECA's recommendations on this issue, the Governing Council decided to disband the TAHA secretariat with effect from 31 December 1989 (resolution no. 02/89/TAHA) and supported the reactivation of a centralized bureau at ECA.

39. The proposed programme, its financial implications and the methodology for determining contribution by member States was presented to, and endorsed by the Extraordinary Meeting of the Conference of African Ministers of Transport, Communications and Planning held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 7 to 8 May 1991 with a further recommendation on the drafting of the legal statutes for the bureau. Table 1 gives a comparison of the financial implications between the existing and the proposed annual contributions for countries traversed by the Lagos-Mombasa Trans-African Highway and the Cairo-Gaborone Trans-East African Highway.

40. The Intergovernmental Experts on Trans-African Highway met in Addis Ababa from 12 to 13 March 1993 and in its resolution ECA/UNTACDA/Res.93/90 decided that a "meeting of plenipotentiaries" be convened before October 1993 to consider, adopt and sign the statutes of the Trans-African Highway Bureau that would be subsequently submitted to member States for ratification". The meeting also recommended that every effort be made to enable the bureau to start functioning in 1994.

41. The Special Meeting of Plenipotentiaries on the statutes of the Trans-African Highway Bureau was held in Rabat, Morocco on 14 September 1993 to consider, adopt and sign the statutes of the bureau. The following countries appended their signature to the statutes during the meeting. Algeria, Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zaire.

42. ECA has since contacted the remaining member States in an endeavour to obtain their signatures and ratification with the following outcome:

(a) Cameroon, Ghana appended its signature to the statutes;

(b) Uganda paid a sum of US$49,250 for the implementation of the Trans-African Highway programme;

(c) Egypt, Kenya and Morocco ratified the statutes of the Bureau.

43. It will be recalled that the Special Meeting of Plenipotentiaries held in Rabat, Morocco on 14 September 1993 recommended that the launching of the Bureau would be done after 26 ratifications had been obtained as indeed spelt out in article 26 (a) of the statutes.

44. During the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of African Ministers of Transport and communications a decision was made to hasten the launching of the Bureau by reducing the number of ratifications required to 18. Member States were requested to sign and ratify the statutes without further delay. As can be seen there is still a long way to go.

45. Despite the above mentioned shortcomings ECA has made efforts in implementing some of the projects under the agreed Trans-African Highway Programme. ECA has continued dialogue with subregional and international organizations on the implementation of the programme. To cite a few of the activities, a programme for cooperation has been drawn up between the International Road federation (IRF) and ECA on:

(a) the setting up of an African Road Data Bank to be linked with the IRF Data Bank in Geneva, Switzerland;

(b) assistance to member States in the setting up of National Road Associations;

(c) the sharing of platforms at international fora;

(d) organization of the IRF Regional conference - African Highways - The Road Ahead in johannesburg, South Africa, in october 1995 and participation in the IRF World Meeting in Toronto, Canada in June 1997.

46. ECA has participated in the development of rationalized transit charges in the ECOWAS and COMESA transit corridors. ECA, in collaboration with OECD and other cooperating partners also organized the Third African Road Safety Congress in Pretoria, South Africa from 14 to 17 April 1997. The Congress recommended the launching of the African Road Safety Initiative which would be expected to assist member States in improving the road safety situation in Africa through the development of action plans (guidelines) for the implementation of short, medium and long-term targeted programmes in an integrated and coordinated manner.

47. The Initiative is expected to:

48. It is fourteen years since the idea of having a centralized bureau was initiated through the Kenyan proposal made in Cairo, Egypt in 1983 during the second meeting of the Cairo-Gaborone Trans-East African Highway Authority. A lot of work has since been undertaken, as reflected in the previous progress reports, in an endeavour to establish a realistic and cost effective bureau to serve as a secretariat for the various authorities and coordinating committees.

49. It is hoped that all the effort that has been made in the realization of the Trans-African Highway programme, in light of its critical role in the establishment of the African Economic Community, will result in fruition and that the implementation of the programme will be facilitated after this meeting.

50. In this regard, the secretariat recommends that this meeting urges member States to implement the decisions and resolutions made on the reactivation of the Bureau not later than 30 June 1998, and indicated an alternative scenario, if less than the required 18 ratifications are received by the deadline of the meeting. This scenario could be to request the subregional organizations to take over the coordination of the programme development and ECA's role is limited to providing advisory services in the development of software programmes such as the African Road Safety Initiative, facilitation, capacity building etc.

Table 1: Comparison of contributions

51. It is in recognition of the fact that the manufacture of sophisticated equipment components needed by African national transport equipment industries requires huge capital expenditure for installing heavy industrial plants, well-developed technological know-how, and a large market to absorb the production, that global objective 6 of the UNTACDA II programme called for the development of manufacturing capabilities in Africa. Thus endorsing the viability of the project on the Manufacture of Transport Equipment for Road, Rail, Maritime, and Inland Water Transport in Africa (RAF/89/850) implemented by ECA under UNDP funding with UNIDO as sub-contracting agency.

52. The main objective of the project is to bring about multinational cooperation of African countries around a few subregional manufacturing plants that could produce, for them, most essential components and sub-assemblies which require upgrading and diversification with a view to making their products available to more than one country as a first step towards the development of transport equipment industries.

53. The project provided for the execution of the first phase of project study and development leading to the expansion and conversion of existing national plants into subregional multi-national plants by ways of :

54. The first phase of the project consisted of the identification survey and the pre-feasibility studies of the selected plants.

55. When notified about the objective of the project and the strategy and concept adopted for its implementation, African countries and their private sector and development partners responded positively and expressed their willingness to cooperate in the implementation of the first phase of the project.

56. In October 1991, an assessment and comparison of existing plants and workshops that can be developed as subregional plants, was completed with the survey of 93 manufacturing and assembly plants and workshops in 12 African countries and with the selection of 4 plants having the potential for development as pilot subregional or multinational production units. These plants are: the Zimbabwe Engineering Company Limited (ZECO), the "Chantier Naval et Industriel du Cameroun" (CNIC), the Ethiopian AKAKI spare parts plant, and the "Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer du Sénégal" (SNCS). The report containing the findings of the survey was distributed to member States.

57. Further to the last meeting of the Steering Committee held in October 1991 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it was decided that a market survey be undertaken to ensure that the diagnostic survey address issues based on prioritized transport modes in each subregion and that this exercise be done during the pre-feasibility studies of the pilot plants.

58. The second stage of the project therefore entailed the undertaking of pre-feasibility studies aimed at establishing the financial and economic viability of the pilot plants and providing justification for the member States in the subregions to take over the projects and push them through subsequent phases of study and development, to the ultimate construction and installation of the plants and production of the components and sub-assemblies required by the countries.

59. Owing to the lack of finances to continue phase I of the project, the ECA caused the holding, in February, of a bilateral UNIDO/ECA meeting to adopt practical modalities for the project continuation. Following that meeting, it was decided, inter alia, to: (i) deepen the pre-feasibility study by incorporating in it aspects relating to market studies and subregional and regional cooperation mechanisms; (ii) develop a data bank on all information gathered during the diagnostic and pre-feasibility studies as well as on investment plans; (iii) consult recipient countries through the project steering committee meeting to agree on how to proceed; (iv) organize a closing seminar to exchange experiences in the domain and establish a short- and medium-term plan of action; (v) organize a tripartite project assessment meeting; and (vi) organize a meeting of funding agencies through the UNTACDA II subsectoral working group on the development of transport and communications industries. Given the above information and due to inadequate financing, the project has not, up to date, been fully implemented.

60. In April 1996, UNIDO and ECA however provided their technical assistance to the CNIC by sending a joint mission there within the framework of the study on the final location of the BAMUSSO floating dock and the preparation of the Round Table of financing bodies.

61. Furthermore, within the framework of preparation for the Fifth Cycle of UNDP Programming, the ECA submitted to it a project document on the coordination of UNTACDA II programme estimated at US $950,000 designed to furnish US $50,000 for the closing seminar on the transport equipment manufacturing project. This funding was not obtained due to the drop in the UNDP budget.

62. The project is not completed; and for this reason it has not been evaluated. However, the positive response received from a number of countries, the concept developed and the strategy proposed for initiating and executing the project through multinational cooperation of African States and their partners are appreciated as an example to be followed for the development of projects in other sectors of the economy; for example:

63. However, it must be realized that the concept developed and the strategy proposed, no matter how original, practical and effective, can produce the expected results only if funds are made available for continuing the project development through the succeeding phases.

64. In view of the above, participants are requested to suggest to ECA follow-up actions which could be carried out under UNTACDA II Plan of Action for the period 1998 to the year 2000 and beyond. In this regard, ECA would like to suggest that a meeting of funding agencies/donors be organized in each subregion to consider the investment plans prepared for each pilot plant as was done for CNIC. An alternate scenario would be to transfer the project implementation to subregional organizations with ECA and UNIDO providing the necessary advisory services and coordination at the regional level.