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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