TRL to produce sustainable toolkit for transport projects

Date: 6/5/2010

What makes a good, sustainable development project? What components need to be in a World Bank development project such as a rural road so that it is still there 30 years from now?

To find out, TRL has been awarded an eighteen-month project by the World Bank to develop a sustainability toolkit for transport projects.

The objective is to make World Bank funded transport projects more sustainable by ensuring all the sustainability contributing factors are present, thereby helping to ensure long term development goals are achieved. By doing so, it will enhance the prospects for a sustained impact on development, helping to facilitate local long term commitment and buy in.

To undertake the work, the project team will review existing mechanisms for evaluating projects and the sustainability components that contribute to a project's success. TRL will be looking at producing aid for planners that includes the eight components of sustainability, namely:

• Politically supported
• Socially acceptable
• Institutionally embedded
• Technically appropriate
• Economically viable
• Financially sound
• Environmentally sustainable
• Gender mainstreamed

Once criteria and methods are established for data collection, four projects will be selected for review on the basis of "success" or "could do better" as regards long term sustainability, from countries in Africa and Asia. Field trips will be undertaken to explore various aspects of the project including the decision making process and stages of the project cycle, and the team will look to gain an understanding of why the project was deemed a "success" and how this can be replicated.

The information gathered will help to inform the preparation of a Toolkit which will provide guidance on a wide list of sustainability criteria. The Toolkit will be reviewed to ensure that it is effective at equipping World Bank staff with the guidance necessary to embed long term sustainability into World Bank funded projects.

Issued by TRL's Communication Team
For more information please contact either Mary Treen or Sarah Bailey
Telephone: +44 01344 770514/0141
Email: mediaenquiries@trl.co.uk