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| SSATP > RMI Update - No. 9 | |
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Some 60 RMF stakeholders representing 17 SSATP member countries reviewed progress towards the achievement of objectives of the 2004 work plan during the SSATP Annual Meeting (Addis Ababa, September 25- October1, 2004). The discussions broadly confirmed the direction and content of the work plan, though with a notable emphasis on further interventions in the areas of rural transport, institutional development, and capacity building. Taking into account these discussions together with the feedback received from other participants, the main conclusions drawn are as follows:
The discussions during the Annual Meeting notably highlighted the importance of linkages to the other thematic areas of SSATP with particular regard to the necessity of determining and then clearly demonstrating the poverty reduction impact of interventions on road management and financing. A special discussion session was also held to allow participants to be briefed on the use of some specific SSATP road management tools - the Roads Economic Decision (RED) Model and the Performance Assessment Model (PAM). Among the conclusions were: the need to schedule an RED training in English and French and to create institutional capacity within Africa for training of trainers; the need to complete the peer review of PAM and schedule a workshop of those countries who have used the model to consider further development and improvement. These activities should take place during 2005. The SSATP Management Team is completing the preparation of the 2005 Work Plan to take into account the feedback obtained from the Annual Meeting. The Work Plan will be disseminated toward the end of the year. Proceedings
of the SSATP Annual Meeting will be shortly be made
available on the website. For
further information, contact Stephen Brushett
Update on the SSATP/AGEPAR partnership The AGEPAR/SSATP partnership provides a platform to discuss on how to improve road management through sharing good practices and capacity building. Since the last RMI update several activities have been undertaken under the partnership.
The
AGEPAR Coordination Committee will hold its second meeting
in Cotonou at the end of the year. The meeting will
include delegations of National Committees of Niger
and Togo. Contact:
Tchona Idossou
Update on the SSATP/ARMFA partnership In 2004 ARMFA became well established after a difficult start, and an extraordinary general assembly was held in April in Lome that set out the association's main objectives, legal basis and held election for the executive committee. The association is now a formally registered entity and developed a two-year work program discussed during its annual meeting in Nairobi on November 9-12, 2004. The ARMFA's work program contains the following main activities:
The Nairobi meeting - the third in its short history - was attended by over 20 countries, including a number of first time observers (DRC, Ethiopia, Namibia and Uganda). The large majority of participants paid their own way, with the host country covering the accommodation and subsistence costs of delegation leaders. With the accession of Guinea during the meeting, membership has now climbed to 21 countries, of which 15 attended the meeting. 10 countries have paid their membership subscription in full. The procedures for the formal registration of ARMFA as a foreign association under Cameroun law have been completed. The annual meeting largely met its objectives in that:
The meeting provided some good illustrations of effective learning from the experience of members, notably the Tanzania's experience on external technical and financial audits, and the presentations on performance indicators and performance measurement as practiced in Cameroun and Togo. The full Proceedings in English of the ARMFA third annual meeting will shortly become available on CD-ROM et on the SSATP Website.
Road Fund legislation database The "second generation" road fund is becoming a significant feature of sector reform programs and strategies for improving road maintenance in at least 50% of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In view of this, it is felt that it would be timely to review the legal and institutional basis under which the different funds operate with a view to identifying some of the common features which may indicate good practice for others to subsequently follow. The review is also to unearth specific approaches taken in some countries which may not as yet have been universally adopted, but which may deserve further consideration In this context, information on primary and, where indicated, secondary legislation on the establishment of road funds have been collected. Thus far this process has secured information on 22 countries (of which 12 Francophone, 9 Anglophone and one Lusophone). This information has been scanned electronically and compiled in a CD-ROM Version 1.0. All the legislation is captured uniquely in the language of origin (English or French) with the exception of Mozambique for which there is the original Portuguese and an English translation. This information has been made available to ARMFA at the Nairobi annual meting (November 2004). This
activity will be pursued during the SSATP 2005 Work
Plan and a more detailed review carried out separately
for the Francophone and for the Anglophone countries,
in view of the significant differences in legal systems
and nomenclature. This will be to determine the extent
to which the legislation adopted facilitates or not
the institutional objectives of the road fund. The analysis
will also deepen the understanding of best practice
in order to provide guidance to countries setting up
or restructuring road funds. The RF legislation database in English and in French is available on CD-ROM. Contact
for further information: Assiba
Amoussou Guenou, fertogo@laposte.tg
Road financing and management training Building management capacity by improving learning and access to a range of technical and managerial tools remains a core SSATP activity. For this purpose, training courses were organized at the Paris Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées - ENPC in June/July 2004 on the following two themes ''Road Financing and Road Fund Management'' and '' ''Road Maintenance Procurement ''. 17 participants, including 9 different SSA countries, attended the first module. The largest delegation was from Cameroun with 6 participants from various agencies and ministries. The evaluation was largely positive and the two major changes from last year's offerings - providing more time and space for discussion and offering a two-day mini-retreat for detailed group work - worked out well. The number and quality of the participants was about right. There is however a continued demand to improve the presentation of case studies which demonstrate particular examples of good practice. Further assistance in building the case for road fund reform - as well as for increases in road user charges and their direct channeling (in other words, moving towards a true "second generation" fund) - remains high on countries' agenda. Another area that would deserves more attention in future is the process of determining road tariffs - while there was an opportunity to use the "Tariff & Traffic" model in a group setting, better preparation and more time for group work is needed. The evaluation also recognized that the creation of ARMFA has introduced a new element into the equation, at least as far as SSA participants are concerned, e.g. ARMFA technical seminars may take some of the weight of this type of training in future, and at a reduced cost. For the second training module, offered for the first time this year, the number of participants was 28 of which all but two were from SSA. The SSA participants were drawn from 12 different countries with the largest delegations from Madagascar (5) and Chad (4). The training was generally well received. This course was a good occasion to further promote the appropriate use of performance-based contracting in road maintenance. It was however noted that the needs and expectations of participants differed, according mainly to their prior exposure to general procurement principles (to which significant attention was given in this year's course). The course had a number of participants from Road Funds whose role in procurement is generally rather different than that of the road directorates or agencies which comprised the bulk of the participants. In the future, it may be helpful to sharpen the targeting of participants and modify the course design and delivery accordingly. For
further information in regard to forthcoming offerings,
contact Bernard Gambini: gambini@mail.enpc.fr
Since the last Update in March, three new publications have been issued:
Both
technical Notes can be viewed and downloaded from the
Homepage of this Website.
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AGEPAR Coordination Committee second meeting, Cotonou,
December 2004
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