Urban infrastructure procurement in low-income countries

The high rate of urban growth in most low-income countries has resulted in ever-increasing demands for improvements in urban infrastructure. The scarce financial, technical and managerial resources in such countries require efficient and effective management if they are to be used to optimum effect. Equally, any enhancement in performance of the delivery mechanisms for urban infrastructure is to be welcomed. Community partnered procurement (CPP) has been used in South Asian countries (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), as well as in African countries, to increase the access of low-income communities to urban infrastructure, and has resulted in improved access and quality of urban infrastructure. The missing link in the monitoring and evaluation of projects is a review of the wider impacts of urban infrastructure procurement, or indeed of whether community procured infrastructure actually meets users’ needs and expectations. Thus a knowledge gap has been identified in terms of ‘how to’ trace the wider effects of urban infrastructure procurement at the neighbourhood level. This paper proposes participatory impact assessment as a tool for development professionals interested in exploring the changes brought about by an infrastructure procurement project, in the broader social, political and economic context in which the project is implemented.