Other publications

Other publications

Who pays what for urban Transport? - Handbook of good practices

Across the world, urban sprawl and traffic congestion in cities have generated an ever growing need for urban transportation. Cities are confronted with major challenges: develop collective transportation systems that are both energy-saving and low in greenhouse gas emissions, while being widely accessible and occupying little space.

 The financing of these systems (operating and investment costs) cannot be covered by the income from fares and subsidies alone. In a wide range of local and national contexts, many original mechanisms have been developed for which goal remains the same: the continual and efficient development of urban transportation and its sustainable adaptation to the city’s growth.

The handbook, created by the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (MEEDDM) and the French Development Agency (AFD), is by no means exhaustive but aims to highlight key examples of funding solutions which can be mobilised in the public transport sector.

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AFD hooks up to parliamentary network thanks to World Bank partnership

The quarterly Newsletter of the World Bank-led Parliamentary Network is now available in French for the first time thanks to support from Agence française de développement.  This 24-page issue includes articles by Dominique Strauss-Khan, IMF's Managing Director, Pär Granstedt, Secretary General of the AWEPA Network, Denis Loyer, Deputy Director for Operations of AFD. 

 

 

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AFD Partnerships – France’s Local Authorities

Decentralization has become a general trend in institutional organization. In countries where Agence Française de Développement (AFD) operates local authorities are consequently becoming increasingly important actors in public governance. The French Government has defined orientations for official development assistance that specifically underscore the importance of public governance and, in particular, of strengthening local governance. 

 

 

 

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"Villes en devenir" Keys to understanding and acting

« Villes en devenir »  ( www.villesendevenir.org ) came about thanks to the will of two French ministries, the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Land Use Planning and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE) with support from Agence Française de Développement and various contributors including professionals, researchers and experts. 

The book provides a synthetic, pedagogical and illustrated insight into major urban problematics and addresses twelve main topics divided into two main sections. The first deals with knowledge and city management, the second addresses the main sectors of urban development. The final chapter reviews city-to-city cooperation which is to play an increasingly important role in French and international official development assistance.

Cities have become a major issue for the international community in terms of economic and social development as well as the future of the planet.

Afrique Avenir

The “Afrique Avenir – meetings on African success stories” forum on 12 February 2007 at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie was instigated by French President Jacques Chirac and gave the floor to some sixty participants from all over Africa. Their professional success stories bear witness to the diversity, vitality and creativity of the continent.

 

 

 

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Le semis direct sur couverture végétale permanente (SCV) (French version only)

Une solution alternative aux systèmes de culture conventionnels dans les pays du Sud

Depuis toujours, les agriculteurs du Sud comme du Nord doivent faire face à des problèmes de dégradation graves des sols par érosion hydrique et éolienne dont les conséquences se font sentir bien au-delà des zones de départ. Cette dégradation et la perte des ressources naturelles qu’elle engendre ont des conséquences sociales et économiques très graves : pauvreté, famine, migrations.

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AFD & DBSA (Development Bank of Southern Africa): A long-term partnership

The partnership between AFD and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is old and multifaceted. The first contacts between the two institutions took place before the 1994 elections, starting point of the new South Africa. Initially focused on contributing to and speeding up the social recovery and upliftment of historically disadvantaged populations of South Africa, this partnership extends today to the co-financing of regional infrastructures projects within the NEPAD initiative.

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Report on retrospective evaluation 2003-2004

AFD has since the 1980s operated a unit specialising in evaluation of AFD's projects and strategies. The main mission of this unit is to conduct retrospective evaluations. This it does using a methodology developed by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, which involves evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of projects as well as their relevance and impact in development and viability terms. The unit is also charged with project monitoring and the validation of project completion reports.

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Les marchés en Afrique : l'expérience de l'AFD (French version only)

Avec l’urbanisation et les mutations économiques des années quatre vingts en Afrique, les marchés se sont multipliés et diversifiés, leur implantation dans le tissu urbain a engendré des échanges et des flux de transport complexes. Les marchés doivent donc être considérés aujourd’hui comme le terminal des circuits d’approvisionnement, de stockage et de distribution de la ville, selon des spécialisations en produits vivriers ou manufacturés. C’est la raison pour laquelle, il s’avère nécessaire de prendre en compte, dans le cadre d’un projet, l’ensemble du réseau de marchés qui structure le milieu urbain et les activités économiques.

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L'évaluation rétrospective 2001/2002 (French version only)

Le rôle du service dédié à l’évaluation rétrospective est d’apprécier -suivant une méthodologie rigoureuse qui se fonde sur les préconisations du Comité d’aide au développement de l’OCDE- la pertinence et l’efficacité des projets que l'AFD finane, leur impact sur le développement ainsi que leur viabilité. Elle a également pour mission de valider le processus de suivi des rapports d’achèvement de projet dans une logique de "seconde opinion". Les enseignements tirés de ces évaluations sont largement utilisés pour améliorer les procédures, les orientations et les axes stratégiques d’intervention de l'AFD.

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Water and Sanitation Output-based Aid

The international community’s commitment, in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to scale up efforts to improve access to water and sanitation requires mobilizing more financial resources in the sector.

However, the stakes are not merely financial. Funding must also be used efficiently to ensure that the poorest communities are the first to benefit. Project preparation, infrastructure development and sound service management are the key to sustainably improving access to basic services. Output-based Aid (OBA) is a funding strategy devised with the main objective of sustainably increasing access to basic services for the poorest communities. It guarantees an efficient use of funding by tying aid disbursements to monitorable results-based performance.

The mechanism is also interesting because it encourages operators (public or private) to develop infrastructure and provide a sustainable service for families in poor periurban or rural areas. It involves joint reflection among donors, local government, civil society and the operator on the most efficient ways to increase the water and sanitation coverage rate. To date few OBA projects have been carried out and lessons will be learned over the coming years from pilot projects currently under preparation. The Agence française de Développement and Suez Environment, through its Water for All programme, are working together to come up with solutions which will contribute to meeting the MDGs in the water and sanitation sector. In this context they decided to engage in a reflection on output-based funding mechanisms.

This project was based on two case studies to assess OBA relevance and implementation methods in Morocco and South Africa. It also studied projects carried out by other institutions such as the World Bank in the framework of the “Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid”. It was led by a group of experts from the AFD and Suez Environment, with the support of an international consultant and local teams from the companies involved. In 2006 the AFD organized a workshop gathering specialists from different disciplines to discuss the findings of the research.
This guide is a synthesis of this research and aims to further the debate on improving conditions of access for poor populations to water and sanitation.
 

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Download the methodological guide