Pilot transport observatory in West Africa: status and preliminary results

Borderless Conference Accra, Ghana February 21st 22nd 2013

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SSATP Transport Observatory program in Africa

Collective effort from a coalition of partners:
Regional Economic Communities (RECs) Corridor authorities Development partners Logistics operators and public agencies contributing operational data and participating to surveys
Corridors to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

Abidjan - Lagos
Douala Mombasa Dar-Es-Salaam

Congo Basin
Maputo Walvis Bay

Problems that cannot be measured cannot be solved

Transport observatories are a toolbox of monitoring instruments and diagnosis techniques anchored in policy setting institutions which enable disentangling the causes of the inefficiencies so that the roots of the problems can be identified, and remedial actions or advocacy taken Figures show huge differences between perception and reality

The dimensions measured by the Transport Observatories

Driven by Users who need analytical indicators that disaggregate the supply chains, in order to find solution
Policy makers needs for synthetic indicators, to monitor efficiency, and benchmarking
Volumes
Trade flows along corridors (regional and international) Traffic of each mode and node

Time & Uncertainties

Processing time Distribution of delays

Prices & Costs

Cost factors Total logistics costs

Services & infrastructure

Quality Safety & security Efficiency

A brief overview of the method

Trade volumes
Primarily relying on comprehensive shipment level data from logistics operators and control agencies (Customs authorities, terminal operators, shippers councils and railway operators)

Time and uncertainties

Process time stamps from IT systems of logistics operators and control agencies (Customs authorities, terminal operators, shippers councils and railway operators)

Prices and costs

Surveys and interviews with logistics operators

Logistics services
Secondary data, surveys and interviews with logistics operators

The West Africa Regional Transport Observatory

In West Africa, structured monitoring was initiated through the Observatoire des pratiques anormales launched with SSATP assistance, and later supported by WATH:
Focus on road blocks (delays and bribes) Collective effort from WATH, ATP and ALCO

To be converted into a regional institution with USAID and EU support, with SSATP methodological input, and JICA technical assistance

Pilot Transport Observatory databases

SSATP is developing a pilot Transport Observatory for West Africa as proof of concept for the future Regional Observatory:
Six countries concerned (Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger) Regional and international transit trade Analytical work on transport costs and prices

Actual data collection at advanced stage on Abidjan Ouagadougou

The Pilot on Abidjan Ouagadougou Corridor

The objective for the pilot was to confirm the validity of the concept and monitor actual supply chains The pre-requisites and the results:
Confirm the willingness of stakeholders to share data:
General goodwill to provide data Some technical hiccups requiring iterative extractions

Data contributors on the corridor:

Port Authority of Abidjan for vessel cycle SETV Container terminal for container cycle Cote dIvoire Customs for transit declarations Burkina Faso Customs for Clearance declarations TRCB and SETO dry port facilities in Bobo Dioulasso and Ouagadougou SITARAIL for container movements by train CBC for rail and road CTN CICCI for transit bond guarantee

Confirm the actual data content versus the theory:

Some unreliable or missing information was identified Formatting issues requiring automated cleaning procedures

Confirm the feasibility of linking datasets across operators and agencies

Critical identifiers External references

Preliminary results focusing where existing knowledge was limited

Some results : Time to delivery: road and rail to Burkina Faso (Jan-Oct 2012)

Averages and uncertainties for deliveries to Burkina Faso

Averages are misleading as the distribution of times are usually complex:
Long distribution tail Most common time much lower than average Extremes do not add: cant always be the best, cant either be always the worst
5% 10% median 90% 95% Average Time in port 3 5 16 36 44 19.6 Time in Time in railways terminal 3 2 4 3 5 8 7 20 9 31 5.3 11.1 Total time 15 17 31 59 72 36.0

Survey opinion conducted at the same period shows huge differences between perception and reality of delays

Traffic on the Abidjan Lagos Coastal Corridor

Challenges and way forward

What works
Supply chains for containers

What does not fully work but can be fixed:

Marginal improvements to IT systems to ensure better linkages (coding, external references)

Accessing the data

Confidentiality concerns Technical difficulties Scope

What cannot be done:

Critical gaps in the process sequence (IT deployment not comprehensive) Timeliness of information only sufficient for planning purposes, not operational immediate decision making

Transforming data into information

Processing the data Links between datasets Making sense out of large data

Understanding and interpreting the information

Feedback from stakeholders is critical Advocacy notes and papers

Thank you for your attention

Christel Annequin SSATP

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