Official development assistance (ODA) in transport sector: Challenges and opportunities

In the face of growing imperative to improve the effectiveness of ODA and to address the daunting challenge of poverty reduction in developing world, ODA policy debate is now at the cross road. One of the likely outcomes of this debate is a priority shift away from transport sector investment on the ground of past failure of transport investment and urgent need of meeting the target of poverty reduction. This paper basically builds a counter argument against such notion of sweeping priority shifts. It first discusses the link between transport sector and socio-economic development in developing countries and then builds a case on how transport sector programs can make contributions to meet diverse developmental and ODA objectives. Presenting selected empirical patterns (both qualitative and quantitative) on ODA in transport and its impacts, the paper draws out insightful issues and makes relevant policy recommendations.