Capacity building support to the Ministry of Transport for Better Planning and Implementation - Firm-01: Assistance in transport sector planning in Tajikistan

Project details
Country: 
Tajikistan
Beneficiary: 
Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Ministry of Transport
Donor organisation: 
Asian Development Bank
Associated enterprises: 
Consulting Engineers Group Ltd. (CEG) (Lead)
State Unitary Enterprise "Research, Design and Survey Institute"
Department: 
Transport & Mobility
Project volume: 
1,179,323 €
Currency: 
€
Value of services: 
194,588 €
Start of project: 
April, 2022
End of project: 
July, 2024
Project background: 

In 2011, the Government of Tajikistan (the Government) approved the National Target Development Programme for the transport sector of the Republic of Tajikistan up to 2025 (the current programme) as a guiding document for its transport sector development. The country has achieved the development in accordance with the programme in the last decade through amongst others, the receipt of financial and technical assistance from development partners. Given that the current programme is up to 2025, the Government needs to update the current programme for the next 15 years (2026–2040) and get the updated programme approved by 2025.

The Government and ADB discussed during ADB’s ongoing transport sector assessment of Tajikistan in March and May 2021 the various needs, and agreed that the ADB will provide assistance for the updating of the current programme. They further confirmed the need for strengthening capacity relative to sector planning to ensure the proper implementation of the updated programme. Based on those discussions, ADB conducted a fact-finding mission on 29 June–2 July 2021 for the TA, and confirmed that the TA will help the Ministry of Transport (MOT) to achieve the two main project outputs.

Service description: 

Services to be provided include:

  • Review and assess the implementation progress of the current program in 2011–2021, and identify challenges and lessons gained through consultation with the relevant government authorities
  • Study existing legislative and institutional frameworks, policies, standards, and guidelines relating to the transport sector and subsectors, including the assessment of the subsectors’ strategies;
  • Conduct the diagnostics studies of the MOT and subsector agencies and identify (i) overall issues relating to operation of each subsector and (ii) institutional issues and needs in their capacity and assess the competence of the staff in each agency, particularly those who are involved in subsector planning
  • Conduct data collection (socioeconomic, demographic, and import/export information, among others) in coordination with the Government’s relevant authorities including the Statistics Agency, as well as necessary surveys such as travel behavior surveys, to understand the country’s development status, potentials, and comparative advantages of different regions;
  • Define regional transport prospects in reference to latest studies under the CAREC program or other relevant regional studies;
  • Define scenarios to be applied for travel demand analysis for major travel modes (roads, railways and air) in consultation with the government’s economic growth and recent regional-level policy dialogues such as the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation [CAREC])

 

Update of the National Transport Sector Programme and Formulation of the Transport Sector Capacity Programme including

  • Listing potential investments within the period of 2026–2040 across the subsectors including indicative cost estimates, and prioritization
  • Propose possible actions to the identified issues relating to transport sector planning
  • Draft competency framework required for operationalizing transport sector planning
  • Identify major aspects required for the sub-/sector agencies’ staff to update the updated National Transport Sector Programme
Objectives: 

Overall objective:

The transport sector of Tajikistan consists of four subsectors (roads, railways, civil aviation, and cross border/logistics facilitation). The MOT is the primary responsible body for planning the country’s transport sector as well as the road subsector. However, the other subsector agencies (Tajikistan Railway for the railway subsector, Civil Aviation Agency for the aviation sector, and Customs Services for the cross border and logistics facilitation subsector) have their own planning functions and their plans are not well concerted or aligned with the MOT’s overall plans. Such fragmentation has resulted to lowered synergies among the subsectors, where the respective agencies compete with one another as opposed to working together. A mechanism to ensure the overall coordination among the subsectors is urgently needed to fix this fragmentation such that balanced development in the country can be achieved. Moreover, this status quo confirms a need for transport sector planning capacity strengthening to ensure the proper implementation of the updated program.

Specific objective:

Based on the agreements between the Government and the ADB, the TA aims to assist the MOT on two outputs:

  1. National Transport Sector Program developed and
  2. Transport Sector Capacity Development Program developed
     

An international consulting firm (hereinafter called as “the consultant”) has been recruited to assist the TA’s implementation.

Currency: 
€