Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues
To be credible, any plan for scaling up infrastructure in Africa must rest on a thorough evaluation of how fiscal resources are allocated and financed. Because in every plausible scenario the public sector retains the lion's share of infrastru...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936101468211804244/Main-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28238 |
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okr-10986-282382021-04-23T14:04:47Z Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia Smits, Karlis Foster, Viven CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUDGETS COUNTRY PURCHASING POSSIBILITIES FISCAL RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE MACROECONOMIC STABILITY PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING PUBLIC SPENDING To be credible, any plan for scaling up infrastructure in Africa must rest on a thorough evaluation of how fiscal resources are allocated and financed. Because in every plausible scenario the public sector retains the lion's share of infrastructure financing, with private participation remaining limited, a central purpose of such an evaluation is to identify where and how fiscal resources can be better used if not increased without jeopardizing macroeconomic and fiscal stability. The stakes are high, because the magnitude of Africa's infrastructure needs carries a commensurate potential for misuse of scarce fiscal resources. The authors analyze recent public expenditure patterns to identify ways to make more fiscal resources available for infrastructure. The authors do this in three ways. First, we quantify the level and composition of public spending on infrastructure so as to match fiscal allocations to the particular characteristics of individual subsectors and to countries' macroeconomic type (low-income fragile, low-income no fragile, oil-exporting, and middle-income). Second, the authors evaluate public budgetary spending for infrastructure against macroeconomic conditions to get a sense of the scope for making additional fiscal resources available based on actual allocation decisions in recent years. And, third, the authors look for ways to make public spending for infrastructure more efficient, so as to better use existing resources. Any exercise of this kind encounters data limitations. First, because it was not feasible to visit all sub national entities, some decentralized infrastructure expenditures probably have been underrepresented, with particular implications for the water sector. Second, it was not always possible to fully identify which items of the budget are financed by donors, and contributions by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to rural infrastructure projects are likely to have been missed completely. Third, it was not always possible to obtain full financial statements for all of the infrastructure special funds that the authors identified. Fourth, accurate recording of annual changes in fixed capital formation (capital expenditure) of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) remains a methodological challenge. Fifth, accurate measurement of existing public infrastructure stock will require further methodological development. 2017-09-08T19:01:25Z 2017-09-08T19:01:25Z 2009 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936101468211804244/Main-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28238 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Recent Economic Developments in Infrastructure Economic & Sector Work Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUDGETS COUNTRY PURCHASING POSSIBILITIES FISCAL RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE MACROECONOMIC STABILITY PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING PUBLIC SPENDING |
| spellingShingle |
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUDGETS COUNTRY PURCHASING POSSIBILITIES FISCAL RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE MACROECONOMIC STABILITY PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING PUBLIC SPENDING Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia Smits, Karlis Foster, Viven Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Sub-Saharan Africa |
| description |
To be credible, any plan for scaling up
infrastructure in Africa must rest on a thorough evaluation
of how fiscal resources are allocated and financed. Because
in every plausible scenario the public sector retains the
lion's share of infrastructure financing, with private
participation remaining limited, a central purpose of such
an evaluation is to identify where and how fiscal resources
can be better used if not increased without jeopardizing
macroeconomic and fiscal stability. The stakes are high,
because the magnitude of Africa's infrastructure needs
carries a commensurate potential for misuse of scarce fiscal
resources. The authors analyze recent public expenditure
patterns to identify ways to make more fiscal resources
available for infrastructure. The authors do this in three
ways. First, we quantify the level and composition of public
spending on infrastructure so as to match fiscal allocations
to the particular characteristics of individual subsectors
and to countries' macroeconomic type (low-income
fragile, low-income no fragile, oil-exporting, and
middle-income). Second, the authors evaluate public
budgetary spending for infrastructure against macroeconomic
conditions to get a sense of the scope for making additional
fiscal resources available based on actual allocation
decisions in recent years. And, third, the authors look for
ways to make public spending for infrastructure more
efficient, so as to better use existing resources. Any
exercise of this kind encounters data limitations. First,
because it was not feasible to visit all sub national
entities, some decentralized infrastructure expenditures
probably have been underrepresented, with particular
implications for the water sector. Second, it was not always
possible to fully identify which items of the budget are
financed by donors, and contributions by nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) to rural infrastructure projects are
likely to have been missed completely. Third, it was not
always possible to obtain full financial statements for all
of the infrastructure special funds that the authors
identified. Fourth, accurate recording of annual changes in
fixed capital formation (capital expenditure) of State-owned
enterprises (SOEs) remains a methodological challenge.
Fifth, accurate measurement of existing public
infrastructure stock will require further methodological development. |
| format |
Report |
| author |
Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia Smits, Karlis Foster, Viven |
| author_facet |
Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia Smits, Karlis Foster, Viven |
| author_sort |
Briceño-Garmendia, Cecilia |
| title |
Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| title_short |
Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| title_full |
Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| title_fullStr |
Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Financing Public Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Patterns and Emerging Issues |
| title_sort |
financing public infrastructure in sub-saharan africa : patterns and emerging issues |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936101468211804244/Main-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28238 |
| _version_ |
1764466154721509376 |