Improving Transport Project Appraisals
In the Islamic Countries
108
Hussein Bridge (120 million JOD); the Amman-Zarqa BRT (30 million JOD); and the Amman Civil
Airport – Marka (120 million JOD).
The PPP Unit is an effective interface between ministries and authorities in Jordan, such as the
MoT or MoPWH on the one hand, and IFIs on the other hand. The PPP Unit bundles knowledge
and experience in PPP and provides this to the relevant ministries and authorities, also in the
form of capacity building activities. The PPP unit has proven to be a catalyst in getting PPP
project off the ground.
6.4 Capacity and tools
The capacity to carry out project appraisal in Jordan is reasonably good, as illustrated by a
number of high quality feasibility studies reviewed. Underlying reason is the fact that project
appraisal is fairly well mainstreamed in the project development process, as illustrated earlier.
The capacity of the local consultants is good, however, it is stated that there is a relatively limited
number of qualified local consultants.
The ability to check the quality of the work of consultants at ministries and authorities is
relatively limited. There is certainly highly qualified staff at ministries and authorities, but it
seems that the ability to check the consultants work is limited to a few persons, making the
system vulnerable. Training on project appraisal has taken place, as part of the development of
the transport strategy, however, since then, no training in this field has taken place at MoT.
No manuals or guidelines are available for doing project appraisal. It should be noted that for
PPP projects, the PPP guidelines manual is under development. Although very useful for PPP
projects, no detailed guidance is provided on how to do project appraisal.
6.5 Content
Methodology
Two types of appraisal methods have been applied in Jordan:
 Cost benefit analysis (CBA) in the process of infrastructure investment decision-making,
aimed at justification of an individual transport project.
 Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) in the process of preparing the transport strategy (LTNTS),
aimed at selecting an optimal scenario, consisting of infrastructure projects and policy
measures90.
Both elements are related, as the transport policy provides the framework in which individual
projects can be appraised. Methodological elements of CBA and MCA are presented below.
90 It should be noted that CBA results (NPV) are one of the criteria applied in the MCA.