{"id":1857,"date":"2017-02-09T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1857"},"modified":"2017-02-13T13:01:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T12:01:56","slug":"regional-transport-infrastructure-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2017\/02\/09\/regional-transport-infrastructure-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional transport infrastructure improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Integration may bring important benefits to Africa. It will foster higher growth and development<\/strong> (see Intra-African trade and transportation<\/em><\/a>, Agenda 2063 (II): Connecting Africa through high-speed trains<\/em><\/a>, Regional integration in Africa<\/em><\/a>). Needless to say, regional<\/strong> transport infrastructure improvements <\/strong>play a key role in this.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s infrastructure deficits, that include transportation and energy access, have been estimated to cost the continent up to 2 percentage points of annual economic growth in 2015, according to the African Union Commission<\/strong><\/a>. This is a huge drag for the continent\u2019s economic activity: to give some perspective, Sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s (SSA) real GDP grew at 3.35% in 2015. African leaders\u2019 commitment in Agenda 2063<\/strong><\/a> to accelerate action to connect the continent through a better infrastructure aims at overcoming this situation.<\/p>\n

A look at the 2016 regional infrastructure index<\/strong><\/a> published by the African Union Commission gives us the opportunity to compare how regional integration varies across African administrative regions.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: African Union Commission
*Note: The regional infrastructure index ranges from 0, the least connected, to 1, the most connected and it averages the outcomes of 5 indicators: average cost of roaming, total regional electricity trade (net) per capita, proportion of intra-regional flights and the infrastructure development index (transport, electricity, ICT, water and sanitation). Information about each region (ECOWAS<\/a>, COMESA<\/a>, ECCAS<\/a>, EAC <\/a>and SADC<\/a>).
**Note: There are countries that belong to more than one Regional Economic Community. The countries\u2019 values correspond to the regional integration within each Regional Economic Community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good news is that the overall situation has improved in the last decade. \u00a0Still, these improvements are distributed asymmetrically across the different African areas.<\/p>\n

\"Kenya\u2019s<\/a>
Kenya\u2019s road network has improved considerably<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n