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
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Mombasa
Dar-Es-Salaam
Walvis Bay
Douala
Abidjan - Lagos
Corridors to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
Congo Basin
Maputo
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
•Trade flows along corridors (regional and international)
•Traffic of each mode and node Volumes
•Processing time
•Distribution of delays
Time & Uncertainties
•Cost factors
•Total logistics costs Prices & Costs
•Quality
•Safety & security
•Efficiency
Services & infrastructure
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 d’Ivoire, 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
– 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
• Data contributors on the corridor: – Port Authority of Abidjan for vessel
cycle – SETV Container terminal for container
cycle – Cote d’Ivoire 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
Some results : Time to delivery: road and rail to Burkina Faso (Jan-Oct 2012)
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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: can’t
always be the best, can’t either be always the worst
• Survey opinion conducted at the same period shows huge differences between perception and reality of delays
Time in
port
Time in
railways
Time in
terminal
Total
time
5% 3 3 2 15
10% 5 4 3 17
median 16 5 8 31
90% 36 7 20 59
95% 44 9 31 72
Average 19.6 5.3 11.1 36.0
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)
• 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
•Confidentiality concerns
•Technical difficulties
•Scope
Accessing the data
•Processing the data
•Links between datasets
•Making sense out of large data
Transforming data into
information
•Feedback from stakeholders is critical
•Advocacy notes and papers
Understanding and interpreting the information
Thank you for your attention
Christel Annequin
SSATP
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