Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) usually have their own guidelines for an appraisal of investment projects or programmes in transport infrastructure. Principal objectives of MDBs together with high level priorities adopted by them, e.g. the avoidance of environmentally damaging investments and the widespread distribution of the benefits of projects throughout society, play an important role in the project evaluation process. For example, the poverty reduction impact of a project in a least developed country might have an important weight in the assessment process. Hence, economic evaluations applied by the Banks are much broader than traditional cost-benefit analysis.
Read more in the gTKP Finance & Economics Topic Information Sheet on Economic Analysis for Multilateral Development Banks.
Key Documents:
- Guidelines for the Economic Analysis of Projects, Economics and Development Resource Center, Asian Development Bank, 1997.
It provides guidelines for ADB staff and officials of developing member countries in assessing project proposals for economic viability and financial sustainability. It includes sections on environmental costs and benefits, the distribution of net benefits, and sensitivity and risk analysis. - Belli, P., Anderson, J., Barnum, H. N., Dixon, J. A., Tan, J., Economic Analysis of Investment Operations: Analytical Tools and Practical Applications, World Bank, 2001.
This book presents general principles and methodologies that are applicable across sectors, including quantitative risk analysis. It provides both theory and practice about how to evaluate transportation, health, and education projects; and explains how to assess the environmental impact of projects. It provides a fresh look at the tools of project analysis and explains how to apply quantitative analysis of costs and benefits from multiple perspectives-- including the private sector, the public sector, bankers, and the country as a whole. - Mackie, P., Nellthorp, J., Laird, J., and others, Notes on the Economic Evaluation of Transport Projects, World Bank, 2005
These Notes provide guidance on some of issues that have proven more difficult to deal with in the application of both conventional cost benefit analysis in transport and addressing of the newer topics of interest.
The Economic Evaluation Notes are arranged in three groups. The first group (TRN-6 to TRN-10) provides criteria for selection a particular evaluation technique or approach; the second (TRN-11 to TRN-17) addresses the selection of values of various inputs to the evaluation, and the third (TRN-18 to TRN-26) deals with specific problematic issues in economic evaluation. The Notes are preceded by a Framework (TRN-5), that provides the context within which economic evaluation is used in the transport sector.