economic integration communities and submitted to the subregional coordinating body for consideration and approval before being submitted to the regional coordinating body for adoption. The sectorial or economic cooperation organization initiating the project should be responsible for mobilizing funds for it with the assistance of the subregionai economic integration community. The search for funding should be undertaken alongside the project preparation which should study the project's chances
of being financed.
(c) Funding for the subregional and regional projects will come mainly from the internal resources of the organizations concerned as well as from official development assistance and possibly subregional and regional development financing institutions and other special resources like trust funds and sponsorships.
(d) The States concerned should be exclusively responsible for the preparation, financing and implementation of the local projects and activities identified as being indispensable for achieving the objective of Africa's physical and economic integration both at the subregional and national levels. However, where necessary, in searching for funding, assistance may be sought from the subregional or regional coordinating bodies which could sensitize development funding partners.
408. A special report will be prepared on these views which should guide the plan of action or The Way Forward. The report will be submitted to the Conference of African Ministers of Transport and Communications in accordance with the established procedures. During its consideration, it would seem advisable to involve the Ministers of Finance and/or Integration in order to create greater awareness on the stakes of transport and communications in Africa's integration and on the importance of taking these into account in national development plans and programmes The structure of the report on "The Way Forward" follows.
M. Proposed structure of the special report on "The Way Forward"
409. The report will have five main parts one of which will be the introduction, This structure will be
as follows;
2.1 Introduction
410. It will contain a brief summary on:
• The status of transport and communications at the end of the Decade;
• Current major work being done of importance to the development of transport and communications and relevant to the physical and economic integration of Africa;
• The major challenges, including poverty reduction, the impact of HIV/AIDS, new technologies and globalization, which Africa must face up to and in the conquest of which transport and communications have an indispensable role to play;
• The need to sustain the impact of UNTACDA II;
Current consensus of the international community on the role of transport and communications in economic and social development and on the development policies of these
sectors;
• The conclusions of the meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee.
2.2 The main lessons learned from the implementation of UNTACDA II
411. The lessons can be summarized under strengths and weaknesses of the implementation,
as follows:
(a) Strengths
• Creation of awareness of the importance of transport and communications in the economic
and social development of Africa;
. Creation of awareness of the magnitude of the needs in order to reduce the gap in performance, cost and quality between the transport and communication services in Africa and
those in other continents;
. Relevance in the long term, of the overall and subsectoral objectives of UNTACDA II;
. The importance of maintaining the framework for consultation, dialogue and exchange of
experiences for the purpose of achieving these objectives.
(b) Weaknesses
• Poor mobilization of financial resources;
• Low involvement of States and organizations (particularly the subregionai
economic communities)
• Lack of a clear definition of the responsibilities and roles of actors;
• Weak implementation and follow-p mechanisms;
• A relatively low achievement of the objectives.
2.3 Areas of focus
412. The following are apparently the key areas of focus:
. Preparation and implementation of policy reforms aimed at improving the management of transport and communications infrastructure and services, creation of a favourable institutional and regulatory environment for the separation of political activities from commercial ones and for encouraging the participation of civil society and the private sector in the execution of these activities in an efficacious regulatory framework;
• development and enhancement of human resources (through training and retraining)
and institutional capacity building;
• Building of harmonized subregionai and regional databases to serve as the basis for
analysis, planning and management;
147
• Improvement of airport and communications facilitation in order to increase exchanges and movement in the continent and outside it, in order to ensure efficiency in terms of time, cost, security and safety, reliability and steady flow for people, goods and services;
• Harmonization and improvement of transport and communications safety standards;
• Formulation of strategies for developing and adapting new technologies to meet
Africa's needs;
• Formulation of strategies for designing, building and operating transport and communications infrastructure and services, bearing in mind the following needs;
Poverty reduction
Environmental protection
Improvement of access, particularly for women, in rural and urban areas;
Reduction of physical and non-physical barriers to the physical and economic integration of the continent;
Reduction of the impact of AIDs.
2.4 Institutional framework and implementation mechanism
413. The following framework would seem adequate provided the various actors concerned are willing to assume their responsibilities and fully play their role.
At the regional level: The Commission of the African Union (AU) and ECA in accordance with and depending on their respective mandates and resources, in cooperation with the donor community, the African regional organizations and the United Nations agencies, all of whom should be involved in the formulation, coordination, follow-up and monitoring of activities, particularly in
regional activities.
At the subregiona! level: The subregional economic integration communities which should be involved in the execution, coordination and monitoring of subregional activities as well as in policy reforms and infrastructural development. They should also participate in the physical integration as well as in improving access in cooperation with African subregional organizations, NGOS, subregional professional organizations and the subregional development Centres.
At the national level: Through policy reforms and infrastructure development projects states should, as much as possible, work with NGOs, civil society professional organizations and trade unions as well as users.
414. The following arrangements are highly necessary for a general monitoring of the plan of action:
First, a Consultative framework: AU, ECA, subregional communities, specialized organizations
and donors, on an annual basis.
Second, a Decentralized framework: Ministries of Transport and Communication and Ministries of Finance and integration, every two years.
2.5 Activity funding arrangements
415 The arrangements stated below show the assignment of responsibilities for fund mobilization for the implementation of activities approved under the plan of action.
. Regional activities and operation of the institutional framework and the implementation mechanism at the regional and subregionat levels: responsibility
of the AC and ECA.
• Subregional activities: responsibility of the subregional economic communities.
• National activities and projects: responsibility of States.
The named responsible authorities formulate funding requests and take every necessary step to obtain funding for the activities coming under their purview.
CHAPTER X
Conclusions and Recommendations
416. When it was launched, the UNTACDA II Programme contained 669 projects covering all the 11 sub-sectors. In November 1993, 39 new projects were approved, bringing the total number of projects to be implemented to 708. Concurrently, the programme covered the scope and implementation of seven thematic programmes whose activities were to add to the lasting project impact of the programme.
417. At the end of programme implementation, the main observations are that:
(a) The programme monitoring has been impeded by inadequate financing which led to the stoppage of any follow-up planned under the strategy pursued well before the end of the first half of the Decade;
(b) More than 90 per cent of the projects were approved at the beginning of the Decade and no more projects accepted after November 1993. The result was inadequate implementation of the programme preparation and project selection strategies. That is how many projects crept into the programme without the required priority or relevant adherence to Decade objectives;
(c) A considerable expansion in project costs resulted from changes that took place in the scope and purpose of some projects. Those changes were not subjected to any of the selection criteria prescribed in the programme implementation strategy and were most often the result of project underestimation created by inadequate preparation at the time they were introduced into the programme. The total cost of the 708 projects at the time they were introduced into the Programme was m$12,745.56 million. In 2000, it was $US 17 260.97 million, a 35 per cent increase.
(d) The strategy implementation bodies did not function regularly or in accordance with the indicators approved at the time of programme preparation. Not all the national coordinating committees were established and those established did not function. The subregiona! and sub-sectoral working groups ceased to operate after the launching of the Decade in 1991. The Resource Mobilization Committee which was transformed in 1995 into the Programme Promotion Committee has not conducted any activity since 1997 when the report of the second mid-term evaluation was considered; and
(e) The lead agency was unable to conduct the activities for which it was responsible, namely: analyzing and harmonizing strategies and programmes in order to secure their conformity with Decade objectives, project selection criteria and coordination of the overall activities of the Decade.
418. These observations did have an impact on the Decade Programme performance and the main considerations here are:
(a) The stoppage in implementation of some thematic programmes for lack of financing.
These were the HRID, Transport Databank, Trans-African Highway and Road Safety Programmes of which only the initial phases were implemented;
(b) Project implementation at a rate of 66 percent for all the 708 projects. Indeed, 466 projects were totally or partly implemented of which 331 were in the transport sector (65 per cent implementation rate) and 135 in the communications sector (67 per cent implementation rate). The overall implementation rate will approach 70 per cent if the 40 abandoned projects are excluded, so the physical implementation rate
can be considered satisfactory;
(c) The amount of resources mobilized m$9,005.51 which becomes m$6,909.06 -when existing funds of m$2,096.45 at the time the programme was launched are considered Compared to the total cost of projects implemented of m$16,582.08, the resource mobilization rate of approximately 54 per cent as achieved, which only be considered fair. If compared to the cost of projects fully or partly implemented, the mobilzation rate is 64 per cent which is fairly good. If consideration is to be given to the financing required at the launching of the programme m$10,649.11 -the resource mobilisation rate rises to 65 per cent which is quite good and satisfactory given the conditions and environment under which the programme was implemented;
(d) A significant number of projects - 202 in all - were not implemented. From a look at their titles, it would appear that they did not meet Decade objectives for which reason some projects included in the programme were not adequately prepared and this goes to confirm what was observed at the two earlier evaluations, namely that the Decade Programme was often considered as an opportunity to secure funding for projects rejected by traditional donors;
(e) The Framework for Action adopted in 1997 to speed up the implementation of the Decade Programme was, on the whole, averagely implemented;
(f) The achievement of set objectives was very low since only 37 out of a total of 85 were achieved. It should be noted here that the set objectives for some sub-sectors such as maritime, multi-modal and inland water transport did not seem to have relevance to the activities of the sectors and must explain why they were not
achieved;
(g) The global objectives can be considered as satisfactorily achieved to the extent that out of a total of 10, four were fully achieved, another four were partly achieved and
only two were not achieved.
419 The impact of the Decade Programme on transport and communications development cannot be felt from the programme implementation alone Indeed, the total investment mobilised during the Decade for the programme is low compared to the efforts whose outcome led to the development of these sectors. The implementation of the Decade Programme, however, provided a framework for concerted action and mobilisation generated by the awareness created as a basis for the development of some activities which had a positive impact in terms of improving the management of transport and communications services. By this is meant the transport and communications policy reforms which were instituted, such as State disengagement from the management of such sectors as railways, airports, airlines, telecommunications, air spaces and
shipping.
420 Even though these reforms only really took off during the second half of the Decade, their impact has already been felt in the liberalization of access to the air transport, maritime shipping