Roads Evaluations and Economic Analysis: Mozambique

Status: Ongoing

IDG is currently conducting an evaluation to ascertain the impact of the MCC-funded Mozambique Road Rehabilitation Project (RRP) in the Northern provinces of the country. MCC funded the rehabilitation of two key roads: Namialo-Rio Lurio Road Activity (149.7km) and Nampula-Rio Ligonha Road Activity (103 km). The objective of the Roads Project was to improve access to markets, resources, and services; reduce transport costs for the private sector to facilitate investment and commercial traffic; expand connectivity across the northern region and with the southern half of the country; and increase public transport access for individuals to take advantage of employment and other economic opportunities. The evaluation conducts an economic analysis and performance evaluations of road maintenance, road usage pattern, and transport market structure. Prior to drafting the EDR, the IDG team has been assessing the compact documents, investment report and MEL reports to understand the program logic and also virtually meeting key stakeholders to determine if the conditions precedent, as detailed by MCC are being met.

Region

  • Sub-Saharan Africa

Country / Countries

  • Mozambique
Africa

Similar to some of the other road evaluations, the evaluation methods for the project are:

  • Project design and implementation: Review the initial design and the implementation process to inform the evaluation regarding how the activity was implemented.
  • Engineering analysis and economic model: Conduct a cost-benefit analysis and estimate the economic rate of return (ERR) and net present value (NPV) using Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) or Roads Economic Decision (RED).
  • Maintenance: Update the road maintenance assumptions and understand the organizational and political economy factors of road maintenance practices.
  • Road usage patterns: Identify change in road usage patterns by analyzing expanded origin-destination (O-D) survey data before and after MCC investment.
  • Transportation market structure: Analyze the market structure to understand how road improvements cost savings are passed onto transport consumers.

Areas of Expertise

Public Financial Management

IDG conducts a cost-benefit analysis of MCC’s investments in the Namialo-Rio Lurio and Nampula-Rio Ligonha roads, to ascertain the return on road investments funded by MCC in a number of countries with the aim of guiding MCC in designing road investment projects in the future.

Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA)

IDG conducts a cost-benefit analysis of MCC’s investment in the Namialo-Rio Lurio and Nampula-Rio Ligonha roads, to calculate the Economic Rate of Return (ERR) by using the World Bank software for road management called HDM-4.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

IDG conducted an independent performance evaluation of MCC’s Namialo-Rio Lurio and Nampula-Rio Ligonha roads activities, seven years after the road rehabilitation’s completion. This performance evaluation adopts a mixed-methods approach with quantitative and qualitative data collection. IDG conducted key informant interviews and collected primary data which includes a manual traffic count, transportation surveys, roadside establishment interviews, and a road roughness study.

Knowledge Management and Learning

IDG prepared a briefing note based on the evaluation findings report to maximize learning from the evaluation. IDG conducted presentations for key stakeholders in the Mozambique government as well as to decision-makers in MCC with the aim of helping inform future investment decisions.

  • Project Status: Ongoing
  • Location: Mozambique