Sector Results and Learning:
Transportation

This Transportation Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded transportation interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, includes all agency lessons from completed transportation evaluations to-date, and links to learning that has been aggregated across completed evaluations in the sector.

What Do We Invest In?

MCC has funded $3.1 billion in transportation interventions as of March 2023. These interventions fall into the following categories: transportation infrastructure; management, funding, operations and maintenance assistance; and transportation policy, regulatory, planning, financing and institutional development assistance.

Transport Infrastructure

These programs focus on the upgrading, improvement, rehabilitation and maintenance of transportation infrastructure such as roads, ports and airports to reduce transportation costs.

Management, Funding, Operations and Maintenance Assistance

These programs focus on building the capacity of local transportation public agencies/institutions to increase funding sources and cost-effectively manage, operate and maintain transportation systems.

Transport Policy, Regulatory, Planning, Financing and Institutional Development Assistance

These programs focus on building the capacity of local transportation public agencies/institutions to set policies and build planning and implementation capacities to keep transportation costs low.

What Have We Completed So Far?

MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC transportation investments as of June 2023.

4,773

kilometers of roads under design

4,275

kilometers of roads under works contracts

3,563

kilometers of roads completed

What Have We Achieved?

MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future programming. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project objective and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the transportation sector as of February 2023. Read on to see highlights of published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, survey materials, and data sets.

Go to our List of Evaluations to see the status of MCC’s transportation sector evaluations

Highlighted Evaluations

A three lane paved road curving around a mountain

April 1, 2022 | El Salvador Compact

Connecting northern El Salvador through road improvements

High quality roads reduced travel time, but road usage has not met projections

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $449.6 million El Salvador Compact (2007-2012) funded the $268 million Connectivity Project to build, improve, or rehabilitate 23 bridges and 223 kilometers of road. The project was based on the theory that improving road quality would lead to reduced travel costs and decreased travel time, leading to increased use of the road. Increased usage of the road would then enable communities to participate more fully in the national and regional economy.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

A tractor drives on a paved road

December 9, 2021 | Senegal Compact

Unlocking Market Access via Road in Senegal 

Reduced travel times have not yet led to reduced transport costs for users

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $540 million Senegal Compact (2010–2015) funded the $324 million Roads Rehabilitation Project. The Roads Rehabilitation Project improved 372 kilometers of strategic highways and river crossings in the north and south of the country. The project was based on the theory that improvements in road infrastructure would reduce travel times and vehicle operating costs for road users, improving access to markets and services, which would in turn support economic growth and improve outcomes for local people.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

A van drives on a Mongolian road, passing a sign with information about the Mongolia Compact.

December 14, 2020 | Mongolia Compact

Improving Roads to Reduce Transportation Costs in Mongolia

Road upgrades reduced transport costs but preventative maintenance is unlikely

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $269 million Mongolia Compact (2008–2013) funded the $75 million North-South (N-S) Road Project to reduce transportation costs along a critical corridor between Russia and China by constructing a 176.4 km all-weather road section from Choir to Sainshand and by providing the Government of Mongolia with technical assistance and equipment for road maintenance. The project theorized that these outputs would decrease road roughness, travel times, and vehicle operating costs and increase traffic.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Short- and long-haul buses waiting to load passengers at the bus station in Tunduma, providing service along the Tunduma – Sumbawanga road.

October 30, 2020 | Tanzania Compact

Upgrading Transport Networks in Tanzania

Paving roads increased trade and mobility, but not all were cost-effective

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $695 million Tanzania Compact (2008-2013) funded the $405 million Transport Sector Project, which upgraded trunk roads in mainland Tanzania, rural roads on Pemba Island, and the Mafia Island Airport runway. 190 km of roads were completed at compact close, with the remaining 278 km later completed by the Government of Tanzania. The project aimed to increase cash crop revenue in mainland Tanzania and Pemba, and increase tourist spending on Mafia Island by reducing transportation costs.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Go to our Evaluation Brief page to see all completed transportation sector evaluations

What Have We Learned from Our Results?

To link the evidence from the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.

  • Project teams must ensure complete and high quality data is collected both for the Highway Development and Management (HDM-4)/Roads Economic Decision (RED) ERR modeling purposes that feed into project selection and design, and for M&E purposes during and after implementation.

    Project teams must ensure complete and high quality data is collected both for the Highway Development and Management (HDM-4)/Roads Economic Decision (RED) ERR modeling purposes that feed into project selection and design, and for M&E purposes during and after implementation. The HDM-4/RED models should be based on fully developed feasibility studies that provide accurate cost and time estimates and other reliable technical inputs. They must also be well developed and calibrated at the feasibility study stage and continue to be updated as costs and other design parameters change throughout the construction stages and post-project completion.

  • MCC acknowledges that the plan for PAC to transform itself from service port into landlord port have never materialized.

    MCC acknowledges that the plan for PAC to transform itself from service port into landlord port have never materialized. If such plans are essential to the program logic, MCC should ensure that such changes will occur.

  • Resist pressure to upgrade planned gravel road investments to paved road investments.

    Resist pressure to upgrade planned gravel road investments to paved road investments. In Ghana, the pre-feasibility studies recommended a lot of gravel roads that were later upgraded to paved roads, negatively affecting the cost-effectiveness of the investment. The addition to the cost is substantial – putting just an asphalt top on a gravel road can increase costs as much as 45% – while the increase in benefits is small when traffic is low. There is often a bias towards paved roads for social/political reasons, even when paved roads are not economically justified. It is always easier to find a cost-effective investment in high traffic urban areas than in low traffic rural areas and going for a higher grade of road makes this even harder. MCC has already applied this lesson (example: Niger RN35). This evaluation supports the MCC position to firmly resist these sorts of requests.

  • A high-capacity implementation team can make tough decisions to keep a project on-track. The project experienced significant cost escalations during the engineering design phase because of increases in the price of oil and construction materials.

    A high-capacity implementation team can make tough decisions to keep a project on-track. The project experienced significant cost escalations during the engineering design phase because of increases in the price of oil and construction materials. The accountable entity made the decision to cut the Network of Connecting Roads Activity in order to complete the Northern Transnational Highway on time within the existing budget for the project.

  • The value of roads investments can be optimized by enforcing standards for design review by technical experts and quality assurance and control requirements.

    The value of roads investments can be optimized by enforcing standards for design review by technical experts and quality assurance and control requirements. Roads teams should also consider alternative forms of engineering contracts and project delivery systems that may improve the quality of contractor feasibility, design and supervision.

How Have We Aggregated Learning Across the Sector?

MCC has developed a Principles into Practice paper using evidence from completed independent evaluations in the transportation sector Principles into Practice: Lessons from MCC’s Investments in Roads. The Principles into Practice series offers a frank look at what it takes to make the principles MCC considers essential for development operational in the projects in which MCC invests. The learning captured in this paper informs MCC’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen its own model and development practice in the transportation sector. MCC hopes this paper will also allow others to benefit from, and build upon, MCC’s lessons.