Improving Transport Project Appraisals
In the Islamic Countries
5
Appraisal
aspect
Description
 Selection criteria: Is it possible to select project with a negative economic
result? How is alignment with strategies ensured? How are qualitative and
quantitative evidence combined in the final assessment?
Follow-up
and learning
 Monitoring: Is basic completion review performed? Do rules exist
regarding obligations and requirements of completion reviews to identify
forecasting errors or managerial problems? Is project appraisal constantly
updated as monitoring and management tool to improve project
resilience?
 Ex-post evaluation: Is ex-post evaluation of project carried out? If yes,
when it is usually carried out? Do rules exist on how many years after the
project completion the ex-post evaluation should be carried out or is this
left to occasional initiatives? Is ex-post evaluation carried out periodically
on a sample of investments or rather on a selective basis? If ex-post project
appraisal is performed, how are they used as a learning mechanism?
Source: CSIL
Transport project appraisal in OIC countries
Legal basis
In most OIC member countries, no legislation is in place that stipulates transport project
appraisal to be carried out. A notable exception is Iran, where a legal requirement to carry out
project appraisal stems from the rules set by the Plan and Budget Organisation (PBO) and is
applied to all public investments, not only in the transport sector. The need to carry out project
appraisal is also prescribed in Jordan, by the Ministry of Planning and International
Cooperation2 .
Although in many cases there may not be a specific law, which requires project appraisal to be
carried out, often some kind of legislation is in place that (indirectly) calls for project appraisal
to be implemented as a pre-condition for funding. This can be in the form of a procurement law,
which stipulates a number of steps to be carried out before a project can be tendered, including
feasibility studies as one of the mandatory steps, as seen in Nigeria. Furthermore, a PPP law may
be in place, requiring, feasibility study and CBA to be carried out, as a mandatory step before a
project can be considered for PPP, as in the case of Jordan and Iran3. It should be noted that the
scope of PPP related appraisal often focuses on bankability and financial evaluation of projects
and places less emphasis on socio-economic evaluation. This is also the case of all projects that
fundedwith the support of development partners or IFIs, as this is firmly embedded in procedures
of these organisation and as such a pre-condition for providing funding.
2 Which is considering a Public Investment Management unit to further support this process.
3 Although in Iran CBA is not specifically required.