This workshop was hosted by the IFRTD in collaboration with the Transport and Urban Division of the World Bank's infrastructure Vice Presidency. Held in Nairobi on the 14 th and 15 th of June 2004, the workshop brought together 22 participants from government and non-government organisations in 8 different African countries, complemented by an input from one Asian country, and three contributions from international organisations based in the African region.
The workshop provided a forum for discussing country policy priorities with respect to performance monitoring, for sharing the perspectives of the different regional organisations, and for highlighting existing institutional arrangements for the collection and analysis of transport data. It generated some key messages for institutions working at the regional and global level on transport indicators, particularly for the World Bank’s Transport Sector Performance and Monitoring Indicators Initiative and the Transport Indicators Initiative of the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program.
The workshop showed clearly that countries have their own priorities and structures for formulating transport performance indicators that need to be respected. Some countries welcome the potential to compare and contrast transport sector performance and there is every likelihood of there being consistent indicators. However, there was clear agreement that comparisons between countries should not be the overriding consideration of a regional or global transport performance initiative. The value of indicators for developing comprehensive transport sector approaches, for linking to PRSPs and for mainstreaming social issues was acknowledged, and the importance of reflecting environmental issues in transport indicators was highlighted. Other key issues that need to be considered were the affordability of and accessibility to transport services, the interdependency of rural-urban contexts, transport safety issues and corridor development and regional iintegration issues.
The workshop emphasised that support for building on existing capacities and enhancing existing institutional arrangements in the different countries is important. This can strengthen the reliability of data, and sustainability of data collection practices. It raised issues of sharing information in the public domain in a user-friendly way. Participants expressed an interest in continuing the dialogue on indicators and sharing country experiences. They made commitments to feedback on the indicators proposed by the World Bank’s Transport Results Indicators Initiative and proposed formation of a virtual working group on Transport Indicators.
The workshop was an effective way of creating linkages between national, regional and international initiatives on Transport Indicators. Similar workshops in regions not represented in Nairobi could expand the scope of the learning on indicator development and lead to sustained evidence-based analysis and decision-making in the transport sector.
Full Workshop Report (PDF 391kb)
The presentations made at the Workshop are available below.
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