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    Our strategy in the Transport sector

    Transportation infrastructures meet an important need, providing for the free flow of goods and people, something that is crucial to both economic growth and poverty alleviation. 

    Transportation is a traditional area of intervention for the AFD.  Over the 2001-2005 period, the Agency mobilised some 164 million euros on average per year for the implementation of projects in the transportation sector (including rural and urban development projects with transportation activities). 

    The AFD’s transportation projects are located chiefly in sub-Saharan Africa, but the Maghreb and new target countries, such as China, represent an increasingly important share.

    The AFD’s ultimate goals in the sector are as follows:

    • Economic growth, especially through territorial planning, regional integration and the improvement of user services;
    • Poverty alleviation and providing better access to essential goods and services for isolated populations;
    • Taking into account environmental protection by, for example, promoting the use of cleaner energies for both the local and global environments (greenhouse gasses). 

    The AFD is involved in each link of the transport chain:  road, rail, sea and air.  Most of the Agency’s interventions fall within the framework of the Sectoral Transport Programmes that have been developed by governments with the support of the donor community.

    Through this funding, the AFD supports reforms that aim to improve the management of the sector by promoting a pragmatic approach tailored to the context, negotiated with governments and beneficiaries, and developed in coordination with the other donors. 

    • In the road sub-sector, the AFD is supporting the implementation of a road maintenance fund that can be independently managed and that receives long-term local resources (through the levying of a tax on fuel, for example).
    • The AFD supports the development of the rail sub-sector, both institutionally by contributing, along with donors, to rail network license agreements in sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire/Burkina Faso, Gabon, Senegal/Mali, etc.), and as regards infrastructures: the AFD also finances the electrification of certain rail lines (China, Algeria). 
    •  In the sea and river transportation sub-sector, the AFD supports the creation of autonomous ports, with Port Committees that represent port users, and the privatisation of industrial and commercial activities. 
    • In the airport sub-sector, the AFD is participating in the expansion and upgrading of many airports so that they meet international standards.  The Agency also finances aircraft acquisitions and staff training of.