Transport Core Measures and Indicators:
A Users Guide
(Work in Progress, March, 2005)
Transport and Urban Department, World Bank
Peter Roberts & Cordula ThumIntroduction
This Users Guide is a product of the World Bank’s Transport Results initiative to work with our member countries and other key partners who have interests in the transport sector to better understand its performance and impact on social and economic development. It outlines the overall concept and presents the current drafts of the main inputs which have been developed to date. These inputs are:
• Transport Sector Diagnostic Indicators: pilot set for use at the National level
• Transport Sub-sector Core Measures: required to calculate the Diagnostic Indicators
This guide also indicates how the process in being taken forward, particularly through current pilot work in the field and subsequent consultation. As this whole process is a work in progress, we are learning, together with our colleagues, what is useful to know, what is practical to find out, and how it all fits together to help us achieve our development goals. This Guide will evolve and improve with your suggestions and contributions.
Material in this Users’ Guide and on the constituent resources is primarily the responsibility of Peter Roberts and Cordula Thum with assistance from TUDTR sector specialists
Introduction ... Part 1 Transport Sector: Measuring Performance and Results ...
Objective... Background ... Planned Activities ... Project Monitoring and Evaluation:... Research and further Transport Indices...
Part 2: Headline Transport Indicators ...
Purpose ... Proposed Transport ‘Headlines’ ...
Rural Accessibility ...
Background... Definition...
Interpreting the Results ...
Measurability and Reporting... Updating ...
Improving Measurement of Time and Distance in Household Surveys ...
Alternative Approaches to Measurement...
Urban Mobility
Road Network Management ...
Trade Competitiveness ...
Trade Logistics Indicator ... Scope and Coverage
Freight Haulage Modal Share ... ………
Part 3 – Performance and Impact Indicators for Transport ...
The Dimensions of Transportation ... Performance and Impact Indicators for Transport: Definitions & Sources ...
SET 1 - ACCESS TO ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION ... SET 2 – AFFORDABILITY... SET 3 - QUALITY - Technical Dimension... SET 4 - QUALITY - Perception ... SET 5 - EFFICIENCY - Financial... SET 6 - EFFICIENCY - Economic ... SET 7 - FISCAL COST ... SET 8 - FINANCIAL AUTONOMY... SET 9 - INSTITUTIONS and GOVERNANCE... Part 4 – Core Measures: Definitions, Priorities, and Sources ...
Part 1 Transport Sector: Measuring Performance and Results
Objective
A main objective of this initiative is to assist Client countries to strengthen Transport Sector measures and indicators in response to the WB Infrastructure Action Plan. The resulting data will contribute to a number of important objectives which relate to meeting a hierarchy of demands for data:
• Sub-sectors managed more effectively to deliver transport services cost-effectively;
• Sector performance can be monitored in terms of how it contributes to the implementation of agreed national policies;
• Better informed regional and global perspectives of transport activity and trends.
The main activities of the Work Plan are listed in the attached Table. This shows the description and status of each activity together with the expected resources and organizations involved.
Background
Transport sector data which are readily available from low income and many middle income countries are generally
limited and of poor quality. The sector data from many client countries appear to have deteriorated significantly during the past 20 years. Partly as a consequence, the international agencies and industry associations which are active in
secondary data compilation on a global and regional basis have been less successful in some important areas during recent years.
There have been many significant initiatives within the World Bank and the international development community to
broaden and deepen statistics for the transport sector as a whole or for some significant aspect of it. These have included data collection initiatives led by the Bank which have not been sustained.
The Poverty Reduction Strategy process and the Millennium Development Goals have helped to focus attention on national capacity to collect and analyse key statistics. From the outset, however, this focused on the aspects of human development which featured prominently in the statements of the MDGs. There are indications that, in many cases, this has diverted limited capacity away from Transport and the other Infrastructure services.
Planned Activities
In June 2003 the WB Transport Sector Board made a commitment to strengthen the sector indicators as a contribution to the emerging Infrastructure Action Plan . It was decided that the ‘anchor’ Transport Division would take the lead in liaising with INFVP and other WB segments and in facilitating cooperation between the Regional VPs and their client countries. In parallel TUDTR has also responded to the demand from IDA countries for greater emphasis on the contribution of infrastructure services to their development by establishing the ‘Rural Accessibility’ indicator in 2004. This dual approach has been successful and it is proposed to build on it. Activities are being carried out and are planned in the following main categories:
• Determine available data by working with RVPs and, through an iterative process, facilitate helping their clients to fill significant gaps for sector management, whilst ensuring reliability.
• Develop pilot indicator sets for diagnostic work at the national level.
• Establish headline indicators for strategic national assessments.
• Encourage more effective monitoring and evaluation for projects
• Prepare detailed guidance for collecting consistent statistics. Component activities are outlined below.
Core measures: It has been necessary from the outset to determine and define core measures to ensure that the
definitions and units of all data and indicators are clear and consistent. It is likely that there will be a need to establish a toolkit of good techniques for surveying core measures under a range of resource constraints.
Pilot Data Collection: Collecting sector performance data is the responsibility of client countries TUDTR will assess the
viability of new/revised Transport diagnostic indicators for access, affordability, service quality and other policy areas that can be potentially constructed from available data such as from completed household surveys. This activity will link to regional data collection exercises and to the exercise for the IDA-14 Results Measurement System. In the first instance, emphasis will be on drawing from existing data sources.
There are indicators that are, in theory, readily available if one knows where to look and who to ask. There is also
information that we have found to be needed that requires new or ongoing field research. Together, both types will provide a useful “Transport at a Glance” for the countries that invest in these efforts (see the following table for an example).
Guidelines: This Users’ Guide is a major contribution to the full Guidelines. TUDTR will continue to work with network
called Recent Economic Developments in Infrastructure (REDIs). This guidance will both define key indicators of sector performance and impact and describe their use in presenting a diagnostic of sector status and policies.
The Guidelines will provide guidance primarily to transport sector managers of national data systems and they will
complement efforts to enhance statistical capacity. A secondary audience for the guidance will be World Bank sector staff charged with preparation of sector and project assistance including staff involved in region wide data gathering exercises. Guidance is required to asses the effectiveness of governance and regulation to complement the use of performance and impact indicators. It will propose a set of principles and standards with a questionnaire for effective transport regulation. Guidance for transport modules in multi-topic household surveys will provide the rationale for collecting better data on transport activity of households, finance and time expenditure. The Guidelines can help ensure that comparable data of reliable quality are produced from household surveys. There is also a need for cross-sectoral modules to cover issues such as user preference and the impact on time budgets. The proposed modules will be field tested.
Cooperation with other agencies: TUDTR will strengthen cooperation with the specialist international organizations that
are committed to developing national data collection and reporting. These organizations are expected to include the International Road Federation, the World Road Association (PIARC), the International Union of Railways (UIC), the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) the UN Economic Commissions and the Regional international financial institutions.
TUDTR is organising consultation workshops on Transport Results indicators to be held in June. Representatives of Clients and international organizations will participate in this as well as of some specialist organisations active in the field. An objective will be for developing countries to articulate their priorities and for the international organizations to find common ground on their sometimes competing programmes for data assistance and data collection.
Project Monitoring and Evaluation:
Through the Transport Sector Board, TUDTR is working with the RVPs (in consultation with OPCS) to establish M&E case studies for IBRD/IDA projects under preparation with Board approval date in FY05. The case studies will test a framework of M&E for Transport projects and they will be selected to represent a variety of projects and instruments (extended
service coverage, trade competitiveness, APL, SIL etc.) The framework will help to articulate project contributions to development outcomes by strengthening the selection and use of indicators and the institutional arrangements for M&E.
Research and further Transport Indices.
TUDTR will carry out studies with DEC and other networks to develop and validate representative indices for each transport mode. Once this has been done, it may be possible to better represent important impacts of the sector. The Transport Indicators Initiative will begin to generate a very substantial and verifiable database which will increase opportunities for statistical research. TUDTR will also identify priority demands for such research in consultation with DEC and others.
Part 2: Headline Transport Indicators
Purpose
The essential purpose of identifying ‘headline’ transport indicators is to help restore a balanced view at the national, regional and global levels of the key role of transport services in reducing poverty, facilitating growth and contributing to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
It is recognized that there is value in identifying a few key indicators which capture particularly important aspects of the contributions which transport makes to national and regional development. One example is the Rural Access indicator
which has been developed, as described below, to contribute to the Results Measurement System of the International Development Association (IDA). The IDA system involves measuring a small number of indicators which capture key aspects of the development of the countries which receive the concessional assistance.
Transport ‘Headlines’
Over the past decade or so the focus of policy attention in many multi-lateral and bilateral development agencies has shifted
away from transport and the other infrastructure services sectors. This was substantially due to the increasing focus on the
role of social services in contributing to poverty reduction together with the very strong emphasis on these services in the
initial PRSs and the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals. The role of transport, for example, is effectively
invisible in the MDGs – even when these are considered at the second level of 47 Targets.
To help restore a balanced view at the national, regional and global levels it is proposed that key Transport Sector Headlines
will be identified universally and updated regularly. Five indicators have been endorsed as initial Headlines by the WB
Transport Sector Board. The first of these to be established was the Rural Access indicator, which is described in some
detail in this note. Other ‘headlines’ are at various stages of development.
All five headline transport indicators are defined in the Table below. They result from establishing a consensus on the basis of
significance, available data and opportunities to establish each indicator for a significant number of low and middle-income
countries within a relatively short time period – with realistic prospects of the indicator being sustainable.
In two cases it is realistic to start with an ‘interim’ definition of the indicator.
The national value of each indicator would be monitored over time. Where appropriate, it could be compared with a regional
Indicator Unit Description
Rural Accessibility % of rural population Proportion of rural people living within 2 km of an all-season road. Urban Mobility % of urban
population Proportion of urban people spending less than two and a half hours traveling every day (in all modes including pedestrian) .
In the short term>
Proportion spending less than an hour for the journey to work every day..
Road Management % Percentage of the classified network which is in ‘fair’ or ‘good’ condition
Trade Competitiveness (US$/TEU) Trade Logistics indicator: a composite of inventory, transit, customs and port handling time and
cost.
In the short term>
Port Handling Costs: containers – the average cost of transferring a twenty-foot equivalent unit container between the port gate and the ship
Freight haulage mode % Percentage of inland freight carried by each transport mode (road/rail/water)
The above indicators are included in the more comprehensive Performance and Impact ‘Snapshot’ and ‘ Diagnostic’ indicator sets. They are derived from the sets of ‘core indicators’ which have been established for each of the transport sub-sectors. There are different requirements at each level which are related to significant variations in the objectives of different key stakeholders and therefore in the information priorities set by each and the ways in which they use data. The differences are particularly pronounced in the road transport sub-sector which, universally, has very little vertical integration between the delivery of transport service and the provision and maintenance of the related infrastructure.
In the short-term some of the necessary data will not be available for all client countries. Pending collection of the
necessary data, ‘best estimates’ of the relevant indicators will be made in consultation with specialists having the necessary country experience.
Rural Accessibility
Background
This indicator has been developed as a component of the system to monitor analytic inputs and country-level results under IDA-14 replenishment arrangement and beyond. The system consists of a two-tiered approach to monitor:
(a) progress on aggregate country outcomes, and (b) IDA’s contribution to country outcomes.
The developments for IDA-14 include adding indicators to reflect the importance of some infrastructure services. The Rural Access indicator has been developed in response to the consensus led by borrowers that, in view of the established links
between isolation and poverty, this identifies an important priority for poverty reduction strategies (PRSs), provides stronger linkage to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and better assesses the contribution of IDA programming to sustainable country results.
Definition
The definition which has been adopted was designed to respond to borrowers’ priorities and to be measurable for a ‘critical mass’ of IDA countries by June, 2004. Accordingly the definition is:
‘Sustainable access to rural transport’ measures the number of rural people who live within 2 km (typically equivalent to a walk of 20 minutes) of an all-season road as a proportion of the total rural population. An “all-season road” is a road that is motorable all year round by the prevailing means of rural transport (often a pick-up or a truck which does not have four-wheel-drive) 1.
1
Measurability and Reporting
Information from Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS) and other household and community level surveys carried out between 1994 to 2003 have been used to calculate the majority of the values for the indicator. There are several key challenges for extending and maintaining the Rural Access index:
• establishing a current value for those countries for which the index has not yet been derived;
• updating the value of the index in each country at intervals of not more than three years or so;
• complementing the index with related information which enhances understanding of its significance.
For this to be done on a sustainable basis, country institutions must be involved and encouraged to take ownership of the indicator. In view of the importance of appropriate representative national household surveys for calculating this and other indices in the IDA Results Measurement framework, the IDA Group is committed to helping beneficiary countries to develop the capacity to conduct, analyse and report such surveys on a regular basis.
Updating
Updating the indicator will generally depend on the frequency of household surveys. At present less than half of all IDA countries have completed such a survey at the national level and few of these are updated on a regular basis. Of the LSMS surveys carried out in 31 countries, for example, only seven are year-round or continuous, while 20 countries have had only one round of survey conducted to date2. In view of the importance of such national household surveys for the effective updating of key indicators such as Rural Accessibility (as well as for monitoring other aspects of progress against governments’ Poverty Reduction and other strategies), the IDA group is committed to assisting all beneficiary countries to establish the capacity to undertake these surveys at intervals of about every three years.
The Vietnam Living Standards Survey was carried out in 1998 and repeated in 2002. The General Office of Statistics is now required to repeat the VLSS every two years in support of the national Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy. The VLSS was conducted again in 2004 with the results being due to be published by mid 2005. The survey is designed to be representative at the Provincial level – there are 67 provinces in Vietnam. On the basis of the 2002 survey Rural Accessibility has been estimated for each Province. These estimates show a close correlation between the lack of rural access and the poverty level of poverty in each province.
Improving Measurement of Time and Distance in Household Surveys
In general, data on travel time and distance is collected through face-to-face interviews of randomly selected households (or individuals of households). This data is obviously subject to a variety of factors, such as travel purpose, transport mode used,
trip route, characteristics of terrain, etc. Moreover, the information compiled is susceptible to subjective variation, as reports of perceived behavior and not as observations of events.
A challenge of these surveys is that their accuracy depends on the memory of the respondents. There are various considerations such as deterioration of recall over time, the tendency to ‘round up’ responses and variation in recall with personal characteristics of respondents. Additionally, estimates of time and distance and the relationship between these are likely to be influenced by individual and cultural factors. This may be particularly significant in those areas of developing countries where time measurement devices are not commonly used.
A field survey exercise has been designed to improve the understanding of people’s responses to questions about the time or distance of their travel. This will contribute to a practical tool for the designers of household and similar surveys who wish to include questions on individuals’ travel time and distance. A pilot survey for this exercise was carried out in Albania (April-July 2004) in cooperation with the government survey department, in order to verify the survey procedure and to gain some information on the quality of data collected through household surveys as it relates to time and distance traveled.
Pedometers were used to measure the actual distance between the household and the destination. The results of the pilot survey confirmed the procedure. They also showed, in the case of Albania, quite close correlation between the reports of time and distance as well as between the reports and objective measurements of both. However, the results also confirmed the expected variations to a limited extent.
A survey of time and distance responses is now being prepared in Vietnam in cooperation with the General Statistics Office which is responsible for the Vietnam Living Standards Survey. Further comparable surveys are under discussion in India, Nepal and Tanzania. The terms of reference for the survey are here, together with examples of the procedures and survey
form.
Alternative Approaches to Measure Rural Accessibility
Zone of Influence. During the period before regular household surveys are established, it may be useful to draw from the
experience of how other infrastructure sector establish coverage indicators. In the drinking water sector, each year
governments calculate the improvement in accessibility in terms of % increase in the population (disaggregated to rural and urban) with improved access to water supply.
Each drinking water supply system is designed for certain number of households which are expected to be served by ‘improved’ access to water supply upon completion of projects. Once the project is completed, the number of households benefiting from the project is readily available from project reports. A major weakness of this reporting system is that these
figures ignore to take into account the reduction in effective coverage resulting from partial or full breakdown of existing projects. Similarly the unit offices of the respective line agency might not be able to capture some of the sector work ongoing within their jurisdiction because of lack of coordination or oversight.
Despite these weaknesses, there is an established system whereby the respective line agencies can collect and report information that is necessary for report the coverage on a regular basis. The information is collected through the unit offices which are also responsible for implementation of projects and co-ordination between various agencies operational within their jurisdiction. These indicators have been generally well accepted by the concerned stakeholders- the governments, NGOs, bilateral aid agencies and Banks, etc. In other words these have been fairly owned by various stakeholders including the government.
Can a similar practice be carried out in the roads sector? Can each roads survey include the number of households that would benefit the population as per RA indicator, i.e., can the number of households within 2 kilometers (20 minutes walk) of the proposed road be counted for a given year? Within a given country there are numerous agencies involved in the rural roads sector, from whose experience lessons can be drawn. It will be important to know the kind of data available with sector line agencies as well as various stakeholders engaged in the rural roads sector. One example can be found in Nepal’s Rural Access Program (funded by DFID), which measures the number of households within a zone of influence (ZoI). In this case, the ZoI is defined as the area that falls within 90 minutes walk on either side of the proposed roads. This way, upon
completion of the project, the number of households (population) benefiting from improved access is readily available and there could not be any need to depend on separate surveys.
Geographic Information Systems. Yet another option is to depend on GIS based mapping/analysis of roads and
households. The accessibility figure for some of the countries have been arrived at by mapping how many people live within specified catchments (or Zone of Influence) of the road network. For many countries GIS is being gradually introduced in the roads sector. It might take a some years before some member countries are capable reporting rural access using GIS. Each particular country might be willing to adopt one or more of the above options depending on available institutional
strengths. Which one option in particular, or all of them, should be promoted by the Bank is an issue for discussion. Various factors—costs, willingness of stakeholders, current status of available resources with respect to the above options—will be the determining factors.
Urban Mobility
The definition of the indicator was established on the basis of reviewing relevant work by many national and international organizations (summarized here). It was concluded that this headline indicator should be related to time spent traveling, rather than to the financial cost, in order to represent the interests of all – pedestrians, public transport users, owners of non motorised and motor vehicles alike. Ideally the indicator would reflect all the time which individuals or households spend traveling as this can represent a major cost and constraint on opportunities to improve well-being, particularly for poor
people. Those who are less poor have various opportunities to trade some of their assets in order to reduce the constraint of travel time where they wish to do so.
In practice the focus for this indicator will be on the time spent traveling to work. A data set for this measure was established by UN Habitat for 1998. In the short term there is now an opportunity to update and expand this data set, along with other key urban indicators, as part of the Urban Growth Management Initiative. In the medium term the aim is to establish the necessary survey procedure which would be incorporated in a routine framework of key surveys. Once this is done in the context of a substantial household survey of the form of a LSMS there would be a realistic opportunity to extend the
measurement to include other critical travel in addition to the journey to work.
Road Network Condition
Most countries, particularly low and middle-income, depend very heavily on the road sub-sector for transport at both the national and local levels. The condition of the road network is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of the road transport system. Improving road condition through more effective implementation and management, and in particular though adequate, timely and effective road maintenance has been an important focus of policy for governments and the agencies which support their road sector activities.
At the national level it has been determined that the indicator should be measured as the proportion of the national road network which is recorded as being in ‘good’ or ‘fair’ condition. In many countries this information is available from the responsible Ministry or national Road Agency. The available data is often said to be of poor quality for various reasons. Reports of Road Network Condition are included in the initiative which is being implemented by the International Road
Federation to revive their World Road Statistics in which key national road statistics are compiled as a global set and updated annually.
Trade Competitiveness
Trade Logistics Indicator
A good indicator must be rooted into the practical workings of national logistics chains, from production/consumption areas to borders and vice-versa. It will combine productivity elements from different parts of the chain, typically transport, inventory, official documentary controls, customs, etc.
One part of the answer can come from the “logistics friendliness” index that might be developed in mobilizing the Global Facilitation Partnership network. This would provide a qualitative ratio, encompassing all previous elements in a global relative assessment.
A second part, which would actually help validate the qualitative index, should be based, to the extent possible, on
quantitative measurement of time and cost elements. We know in theory where to find the information, but in many cases in our client countries, precise and reliable data are hard to come by. Moreover, when considering national logistics chains, it begs the question of defining them before going after any measurement data. There is here a first case for adopting a simplified approach, with a view to schematize the logistics process in a way which lends it to easier measurement, without losing country relevance.
Another case for adopting a schematized approach has to do with updating friendliness. Whatever indicators we propose should be amenable to regular, annual if possible, updates at a reasonable cost, i.e. cheaply. While we may lose on
comprehensiveness, we would definitely gain on mobilizing support and interest if we can propose a protocol whereby one or a few national logistics indicators, representative of at least 75% of international logistics transactions, can be updated and released annually at low cost.
The relevance criteria for a schematized logistics indicator is that it can still adequately reflect the impact of changes affecting any of the elements of the logistics chain under review.
Scope and Coverage
The objective of this exercise will therefore be to define a method to establish a country-based trade logistics performance indicator, robust enough to be representative of the state of affairs, without being too cumbersome to elaborate so that it could lend itself to reasonably easy annual updates. One avenue to follow might be to select normative operations involving commodities making a significant share of a country’s external trade, and adopt a systematic analysis grid allowing to
translate into costs equivalent the various barriers to overcome in the external trade logistics chain until the border is crossed. The result would be expressed as a percentage of the value of exported goods, so as to reflect the fact that facilitation and logistics inefficiencies act as a tax on exports, and therefore on external competitiveness.
The practical steps associated with this involve:
i. Deciding on the main commodities to follow. Logistics depend actually more on packaging, and we may decide to track containers, for instance. But we still need to know the average value of the goods transported.
ii. Identifying the main import/export itinerary, or transport corridor. In many countries, a majority of external trade flows are concentrated on one, or a few, main transport corridors. This will be the main simplification element, so
identification has to be done in a way which ensures we will capture a significant enough share of national logistics flows by concentrating on this (these) corridor(s).
iii. For each component of the logistics chain along the corridor, defining the cost and time data pertaining to this component:
a. Inventories (before export or before final distribution): length of stay and value of the goods
b. Transport to the export/import outlet (port in country for coastal states, port in transit country for landlocked countries): time and transport cost
c. Customs procedures: clearance times and associated payments (other than official duties) d. Ports: dwelling time in port before or after loading/unloading, port handling costs
iv. Identifying where these cost and time data can be obtained: a. Exporters/Importers association
b. Carriers and freight forwarders, national associations c. Freight forwarders and customs authorities
d. Freight forwarders and port and terminal operators
For easiness in data collection and future updates, professional national associations, when existing, would be the best bet to set a recurring protocol in place. They are potentially interested in following up this kind of data, and would be rewarded by getting access to aggregated regional results in the market segment of interest to them. In some countries where the market
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is dominated by 1 or 2 large players, the same kind of arrangement could be put in place: data collection against access to specific data beyond the global national averages that would be published.
Specific indicators for the components as defined in a, b, c, and d above are sometimes already produced, at least partially. Building the Trade Logistics Indicator would therefore first systematize collection of those component indicators—which are of direct use in monitoring projects—and second allow for a combination of those into a country-specific ratio of logistics
performance. One way of combining those cost and time data together would be to express the time factor pertaining to a particular shipment—a 20-foot container, TEU, f.i.—as a cost equivalent using the cargo value, which just translates the fact that during a transport phase a shipment is just a “moving inventory”. Actual expenses and cost equivalent can then be bundled together and compared to the value of the good exported or imported, therefore providing a picture of the importance of the “logistics trade barrier”, which could then be compared to direct tariff and tax barriers.
To test the feasibility of such a protocol, the exercise would be carried out first on a selected set of countries. Given the importance of those issues for a number of African countries, in particular landlocked ones, we propose to focus first on a series of African countries to pilot this approach. The work now being underway under the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) on corridor monitoring in Western Africa (Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Ghana) and Eastern Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi) could directly feed into this initiative.
Freight Haulage Modal Share
Development of this indicator is planned to start in 2006.
This indicator will serve to highlight the importance of each mode for the economy of each country.
[This note is based on a number of notes and working documents which have been prepared within TUDTR during the past year ]
Part 3 – Performance and Impact Indicators for Transport Sector
At the national or sub-national level there is a need to characterise the performance and impact of the transport sector, reflecting all significant contributions by different modes. The Infrastructure Action Plan recommends the implementation of country-specific standardized yet flexible diagnostics of the infrastructure sectors in order to identify lending
opportunities and policy based operations. These diagnostics are called "REDIs," short for "recent economic developments in infrastructure."
As a new policy guidance tool, the objective of the REDI is to sharpen the focus of country-level dialogue by basing
analysis on improved quantitative information. The REDI provides diagnostics for a given country on that country's state of infrastructure services and institutions, and the associated investment needs. It also provides diagnostics on related and emerging policy issues for that country.
Diagnostic Framework
The performance and impact indicators for transport combine elements from several categories of data. These can provide a qualitative and analytic picture of how a country’s transportation system contributes to the national economy and to social and environmental objectives. Clicking on each category below shows the indicators in each with their definitions.
Comprehensive set The full (comprehensive) set is more focused than the full Core Measures for all sub-sectors - but it is
still a substantial challenge and much of the data is not readily available in many countries
Access snapshot
Affordability snapshot
Quality - TechnicalDimension snapshot
Quality – Perception comprehensive
Efficiency – Financial Cost snapshot
Efficiency – Economy comprehensive
Fiscal Cost comprehensive
Financial Autonomy comprehensive
Institutions andGovernance comprehensive
Snapshot set The four categories identified above, comprise several significant diagnostic indicators which are generally
D Derived, essential measure which is the aggregate of other measures Note on sources of data and the institutional framework:
Original sources of data largely depend on components of the institutional framework. This is often complex and is generally becoming more so. In many countries road transport infrastructure has been managed separately from transport operations and traffic. Within transport operations, various aspects of enforcement are often the responsibility of the police, but data on road crash injuries generally come from the hospitals. At the sub-national level, local governments usually have some responsibilities for municipal and district roads etc.
Over recent years many countries have initiated significant reforms in terms of decentralization and for management of the transport sector. This has resulted in changes to the institutional framework and, usually to an increase in the number of organizations which are responsible for aspects of the road transport sub-sector. In many cases there do not yet seem to be systems to bring together the data collected by the various agencies.
The situation described above has two main consequences for collecting the data described on this form. Data for different aspects of the sub-sector may have to be obtained from different organizations (road agency, traffic authority, police, hospital services, etc.). For some aspects, such as the road network may be administered by different agencies at national and local level, several organizations could be involved and each may have to be approached for up-to-date statistics on their section of responsibility.