Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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Table 8.1 Corridor governance and management
Corridor governance Corridor management
Governance deals with doing the right things and
concentrates on high-level decision-making
process, primarily setting strategic directions.
Management concentrates on doing things right
and concentrates on day-to-day administration
and implementing the systems of governance.
Source: consortium.
Governance is a truly critical factor for the successful implementation of transport corridors.
Developing transport corridors requires investments in infrastructure, which needs to go hand in hand
with enabling soft measures. This combination of hard and soft measures needs to be governed and
managed in a multi-country setting, involving a broad range of stakeholders, which is the essence of
corridor governance. The various governance domains, which are elaborated below, are interrelated.
Proper coordination between these domains contribute to the success of the transport corridors. This
is reflected by the TEN-T programme, where an integrated approach, including a sound legal basis and
institutional structure, together with available funding for soft and hard measures, combined with a
programme towards monitoring performance and corridor promotion, has resulted in a strong
increase in corridor performance. It should be noted that the TEN-T programme has developed
strongly over time. In the early years, it had a profound project focus and the programme only
gradually evolved into the comprehensive programme of today. More recently established corridors,
for example the Norther Corridor (MoU signed in 2007, connecting the landlocked countries Rwanda,
Burundi and Uganda with the Port of Mombasa in Kenya and also serving the eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and Northern Tanzania), have also been able to attain
clear results.
8.1.2 Corridor governance has multiple interrelated domains
As indicated above, corridor governance is complex, involving various aspects such as legal and
institutional maters, as well as multiple stakeholders, often involving various countries. Literature
addresses various elements of corridor governance, although no comprehensive integrated conceptual
framework is available.
We have used various elements presented in literature to develop a conceptual framework for corridor
governance. The foundation has been established by applying the corridor management activities, as
defined by Arnold (2006): planning, financing, legislation, regulation, operation, monitoring and
promotion. Additional elements from literature on corridor governance (as presented in Annex 1) and
empirical accounts from existing corridors, have been applied to define seven interrelated corridor
governance domains, jointly forming the corridor conceptual governance framework.
presents the elements of the conceptual framework, illustrating that the corridor objectives and
political support are at the heart of the framework and an additional six governance domains are
defined.