Improving Transport Project Appraisals
In the Islamic Countries
17
Figure 1.1: Conceptual framework with seven project appraisal aspects
Source: CSIL
In what follows, every aspect of the framework will be further examined. For each of the seven
composing elements, relevant principles to apply in project appraisal systems will be identified,
and the explanation will be complemented by a presentation of different possible options that
can be found in practice, with underlying trade-offs and implications. Selected international best
practices will serve as illustrations of specific items of project appraisal. It should be noted that
the conceptual framework has been applied to two international cases, i.e. the Netherlands and
the United Kingdom. Results are presented in Chapter 3, together with relevant findings from
International Financing Institutions (IFIs).
The main assumption here is that there is not a unique, ideal-type system. On the contrary,
alternative solutions and approaches do exist, provided that a list of ‘must-have’ ingredients is
included in the system. Gómez-Lobo (2012), illustrating the Chile’s National Public Investment
System (SNI), indicates that a consistent framework for identifying, coordinating, evaluating and
implementing public investments project, should include at least the following items:
 a legal requirement to evaluate all investment initiatives;
 a system of “checks and balances” defining clear and separate roles for, on one side, the
institution that reviews and approves the appraisal of projects, and on the other side the
institutions promoting projects;
 multistage evaluations with various filters and supervisory and quality control mechanisms;
 a system of norms, procedures and methodological support including the centralized
definition of accounting prices,
 ex-post evaluation to identify forecasting errors or managerial problems.
7. Follow up and
learning
• Requirement
• Scope
• Timing
• Roles
• Qualityreview
• Publicity
• Capacity
• Standards
• Tools
• Role in decision-making
• Selection criteria
• Methodology
• Items
• Risk assessment
• Forecasting techniques
• Monitoring
• Ex-post evaluation
6. Results of
project appraisal
1. Legal basis
2. Governance
3. Capacity and
tools
4. Content
5. Demand
analysis