The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group releases first comprehensive assessment of Bank support to transport

To meet the daunting challenges of rapid urbanization, sustained population growth and poverty in developing
countries, transport in large cities has to become a top priority on the global development agenda, alerted the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). The report, "A Decade of Action in Transport", released today,
takes stock of the Bank's important support for various transport modes,
covering nearly 650 projects and more than US$ 30 billion in lending to
developing countries over the past decade. It highlights the worsening urban
transport situation in many developing countries and urges countries and
international donors to help improve urban traffic management, while
continuing support for the development and maintenance of environmentally
sustainable inter-city and rural-urban linkages.

About 15% of World Bank funded projects over the past decade involved
transport, making it the largest sector of World Bank lending. During this
time, 80% of Bank support in transport went to the construction of
intercity-highways and rural road rehabilitation. IEG finds that the Bank's
past assistance to the transport sector has been well-managed and effective
with above-average project ratings. At the same time, the report recommends
that countries and donors focus more on crucial policy areas in order to
ensure cleaner, more efficient and safer transportation. And given the
increasing and vital linkages with energy, land use, urbanization, the
environment and climate change, future Bank programs in transport will
require a truly multi-sectoral approach.

According to Bank projections, over the next three decades the world's
population will grow by almost 40%, mostly in developing countries. This will
be accompanied by a huge expansion in the number of private motor cars, led
by China and India. It is predicted, that by 2020 road accidents may become
the third largest cause of death in these countries. Transport emissions also
account for nearly a quarter of man-made gases contributing to the
potentially disastrous consequences of climate change, i.e. about the same
amount as land use and deforestation.

"Transportation is crucial to a country's competitiveness in an increasingly
globalized world economy. Much has been achieved in building transport
infrastructure in developing countries, but with the growing population
density and rising environmental vulnerability, the solutions of the past
will no longer be adequate," said Vinod Thomas, IEG's Director-General,
"Countries and the development community will need to pay far greater
attention to the urgent issues of efficiency, safety, health and the
environment".

Better air quality in cities needs to become a major objective of policy
makers in developing countries, due to the soaring number of vehicles that
contribute to increased morbidity and mortality as well as long term
increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Worsening traffic congestion in big
cities is imposing huge costs on the urban population. Future policies and
investments in urban transport need to explore innovative solutions for
better traffic management, such as limits on the use of private automobiles,
and greater support for mass transit systems and public transport. The
removal of three-wheeled taxis in Dhaka, supported by the Bank, improved the
city's air pollution significantly, and provides a good illustration of what
can be done.

Countries need to place a greater emphasis on the maintenance of roads and
highways. IEG found that, due to overloaded trucks and lack of maintenance
services in poorer countries, scarce resources are too often being used to
rebuild previously completed roads. Without proper management, gravel roads,
for example, can deteriorate dramatically within just two or three years. The
competitive contracting for maintenance, where feasible, has proved
particularly effective in Bank-supported projects. In Argentina, for example,
the percentage of roads in bad condition was reduced from 41 to 6 % in just
five years.

"IEG has also found that airport privatizations and port concessions, which
the Bank supported in a few, mostly middle-income countries, had generally
led to greater efficiency, lower costs and better service. But the
expectations for wide-spread private sector involvement across the board have
not been fully realized and the public sector will continue to be an
important operator of basic transportation infrastructure in many countries,"
said Peter Freeman, the lead author of the report.

To increase developing countries' competitiveness in the global market,
transport and logistics must become more efficient. In some countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20 % of export costs derive from transport. For
landlocked countries, such as Malawi, the figure can be as high as 55 %. Such
situations seriously reduce the potential gains from trade reforms.
Initiatives to make transport more effective are underway. With Bank support,
eight countries in Southeastern Europe, including Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and others, for example, have successfully
reduced border crossing delays and contributed to a rapid revival of trade.
Countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia are now undertaking similar
efforts.

"Transportation provides potential answers to some of the urgent challenges
of health, safety, security, poverty, and the environment," said Vinod
Thomas, "What is needed, however, is not just more investments but also
better investments - for sustainable results."