Problem

Africa’s infrastructure deficit severely constrains the expansion of agribusiness, trade, and economic growth. Only one-quarter of Africans have electricity and less than a third of rural Africans have access to all-weather roads. New approaches are needed to planning and financing infrastructure – approaches that place greater responsibility and accountability for priorities and outcomes on Africans, link public investment with private investment and entrepreneurial initiative, and facilitate greater pooling of donor resources for large infrastructure projects

The Gift

Your gift will help support research and advocacy to increase investment in transportation, power, and communications infrastructure in rural Africa, by allowing an African expert to prepare for participation in a 2007 workshop to identify the critical issues – including policy frameworks, institutional capacity and accountability, and limited public-private interactions – that affect the ability of African institutions to attract, plan, and effectively manage higher levels of infrastructure investment. A key aspect of the workshop will be to investigate how private sector participation in planning and provision of infrastructure in Africa could be expanded.