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.

Armenia Compact

A roads project was designed to improve the condition of 943 kilometers of rural roads in order to expand communities’ access to agricultural markets, non-farm income opportunities, and social infrastructure.

Benin Compact

A project aimed to increase efficiency at the Port of Cotonou, thereby reducing transportation costs, increasing investment incentives in cost-competitive industries, and ultimately contributing to importer and exporter value-added.

Benin-Niger Regional Transport Compact

The Benin-Niger Regional Transport Compact aims to strengthen and rehabilitate the transport corridor between the port of Cotonou in Benin and the capital of Niger and enable faster and more efficient transit of goods between markets and along the corridor.

Burkina Faso Compact

A roads project was designed to expand access to markets and citizens’ access to social services through investments in rehabilitating rural roads, paving primary roads and creating and implementing a national road maintenance plan.

Cabo Verde Compact

Improving road and bridge infrastructure on the islands of Santiago and Santo Antao and upgrading and expanding the Port of Praia through this compact were expected to increase integration of internal markets and reduce transportation costs.

Côte d'Ivoire Compact

A transportation project designed to improve efficiency, increase the integration between transport systems, and improve road safety by rehabilitating 32 kilometers of critical roadway in the central corridor of Abidjan.

El Salvador Compact

A transportation project sought to physically link El Salvador’s Northern Zone with the rest of the country and enable new economic opportunities for rural households, lower transportation costs, and decrease travel times to markets.

El Salvador Investment Compact

An infrastructure project was designed to address transportation bottlenecks that have led to high transportation and logistics costs for regional trade by expanding the highway and improving a major border crossing with Honduras.

Georgia Compact

A road project aimed to rehabilitate and construct more than 220 kilometers of road extending through the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southwest Georgia, and improve access to markets to support economic growth.

Ghana Compact

A transportation project aimed to promote access to social services and support expansion of Ghana’s export-directed horticulture base, and an agriculture project with a transportation component to expand commercial agriculture for smallholder farmers.

Honduras Compact

A transportation project was designed to reduce costs between Honduran production centers and national regional and global markets by expanding and improving approximately 109 kilometers of Highway CA-5.

Liberia Compact

A roads project aimed to enhance institutional capabilities to improve road maintenance and conduct critical periodic maintenance works on key segments of the primary paved and unpaved road network.

Malawi Transport and Land Compact

The Accelerated Growth Corridors Project aims to lower barriers between farms and markets through reduced transport costs in rural areas. The project will also support road maintenance planning and enable safer conditions for women moving along the corridors.

Mali Compact

A transportation project intended to facilitate sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction through a key infrastructure investment intended to capitalize on the Bamako-Sénou International Airport—a gateway for regional and international trade.

Moldova Compact

A road rehabilitation project aimed to reduce the cost of transport, goods, and services and improve roads safety by rebuilding and rehabilitating key roads and highways used for passenger and commercial traffic.

Mongolia Compact

A road project aimed to improve Mongolia’s transportation infrastructure and connect Mongolian markets to key trading partners by constructing an all-weather road in a key segment connecting the capital to the rest of Asia.

Mozambique Compact

A road project aimed to reduce transportation costs and improve and expand access to markets, resources, and services for individuals and for the private sector through the rehabilitation of 253 kilometers of roads.

Nepal Compact

A road project will focus on improving Nepal’s road maintenance management and include an incentive-matching fund to maintain up to 300 kilometers of roads while increasing the Government of Nepal’s budget for road maintenance.

Nicaragua Compact

A transportation project aimed to reduce travel costs and better link producers to national, regional, and global markets, and also improve community access to markets and social services by upgrading 68 kilometers of roads and highways.

Niger Compact

By upgrading the roads linked to MCC improved irrigation perimeters, and improving a key highway connecting Niger to Benin, agricultural and other producers will have better access to domestic and international input and product markets.

Philippines Compact

A secondary national roads project aimed to reduce transportation costs and provide additional economic opportunities to residents in one of the most poverty-stricken and most typhoon-prone rural regions of the country.

Senegal Compact

A roads project was designed to connect major population centers and agricultural production areas of Senegal and neighboring countries by rehabilitating 372 kilometers of roads on two critical transport corridors.

Tanzania Compact

A transport sector project was designed to improve Tanzania’s road network, which serves a widely dispersed population in order to reduce transport costs, increase cash crop revenue and facilitate access to social services.

Vanuatu Compact

This compact aimed to reduce travel times and vehicle operating costs by reconstructing and sealing 149.7 km along two national roads, the Efate Ring Road and the Santo East Coast Road, and supporting and policy and institutional reform initiatives.

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.

  • Armenia Compact

    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.

  • Benin Compact

    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.

  • Ghana Compact

    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.

  • El Salvador Compact

    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.

  • Nicaragua Compact

    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.