Project Details

Project goal

Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) is the application of ICT to facilitate social, economic, and political development. ICT4D aims to assist developing and emerging countries to exploit technologies for efficiency gains, growth, and progress. This could enable the countries to leap-frog technologies which have already been proven to be ineffective in the context of industrialised nations. In addition, in the field of transport, ICT4D could also refer to the implementation of intelligent transport systems (ITS) to minimise the need for costly and disruptive physical infrastructure.

The discussion about using ITS measures to enhance transport infrastructure projects is growing within the lending activities of development banks. But there are still many opportunities missed, because conventional lending policies tend to focus on traditional infrastructure (e.g. road building) rather than smart ITS measures (e.g. traffic control centre) that can increase the development impact of lending activities.

The KfW Development Bank, on behalf of the German Federal Government, and principally the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), aims to finance and support initiatives that mainly comprise of public sector players in developing countries and emerging economies. The goal of KfW in the field of ICT4D is to maximise the potentials of ICT particularly in the incorporation of relevant solutions in their sustainable development programmes in their partner countries.

The KfW study on ICT in the transport sector focused on exploring ITS solutions which could be financed by the KfW to support digitalisation in the transport sector. This could include the development and implementation of software and hardware, telecommunications infrastructure, remote monitoring equipment, and data management centres. These digital facilities and infrastructure serve as the foundation for the implementation of potential ITS applications such as traffic management, monitoring, surveillance, electronic fare collection, public transport operations management, mobile applications, and others.

Results

The main output of the KfW project was a report containing recommendations for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the field of transport. This primarily includes suggestions with regards to innovative intelligent transport systems (ITS) solutions which could be implemented in emerging countries to instigate technological leap-frogging in the development of their transport systems. The prioritization and assessment framework was applied to an extensive list of potential ITS project categories to identify five categories the KfW should focus on. Findings from this study is intended to influence future lending activities of the KfW in the transport sector.

Project partners

• KfW Develoment Bank, Frankfurt, Germany