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Investing in infrastructure: Evaluating our achievements
30 May 2008
Roads, ports, telecommunications, water treatment and other physical infrastructure are vital for economic growth and poverty reduction. However, they are also expensive, and developing countries find it difficult to mobilise sufficient resources to invest in the infrastructure they need.
To help stimulate greater investment, DFID, in conjunction with other bilateral and multilateral agencies, created a series of Private Sector Infrastructure Investment Facilities. These were designed to overcome specific market failures and encourage the private sector to put money into improving infrastructure and service delivery.
Between 1999 and 2007, DFID committed £185 million to 13 facilities and, during the next spending round, plans to disburse a further £40 million. A preliminary evaluation of DFID’s engagement with these facilities has now been published, exploring how effectively our support has contributed to achieving DFID’s core objectives.
Evaluation findings
Although the investment portfolio is relatively young, its achievements have already included:
- The housing of nearly 500,000 slum dwellers in India and Kenya;
- Improved water and electricity connections to 160,000 people; and
- Phone access for 2.5 million people in Africa.
Projects have also begun to attract substantial private investment. For
example, the
Emerging
Africa Infrastructure Facility has committed $304 million in loans, securing
additional investment of almost $2.5 billion, $855 million equity from private
sector sources, and $1.74 billion borrowings from Development Finance
Institutions.
The evaluation has also found that facility support is well targeted, with the top five countries - Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania - all being target countries under DFID's Public Service Agreement. However, the facilities’ monitoring and evaluation systems need to be reinforced to establish more conclusive data on their efficiency and impact.
- Download the Full Report
(1Mb) and Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment
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