Lessons Learned from PPIAF Activities: Strategies for Developing Rural Telecommunications Infrastructure

These lessons are extracted from a PPIAF-funded study on the recommendations to establish a universal service obligation policy that was published in February 2008. International experience in shows that there is no single model for promoting rural telecommunications infrastructure and that market-oriented policies play a critical role. This lessons learned also provides a "menu of options" for the creation of universal service funds in developing countries. 

Lessons Learned from PPIAF Activities: Best Practices for Private Sector Investment in Railways

PPIAF, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank sponsored a study covering main aspects of railway concessions to the private sector and numerous case studies of the experience with privatizations, concessions, and private sector investment in various countries around the world. 
 

 Lessons Learned from PPIAF Activities: Structural Reforms in Colombia’s Water Supply and Sanitation Sector

This lessons learned examines a comprehensive PPIAF-funded report on Colombia's water supply and sanitation sector. The report illustrates how a series of well conceived policy reforms that create incentives for efficient service providers can radically transform the dynamics of a highly politicized and underdeveloped sector.

Colombia's water supply and sanitation sector provides a unique case of activities because it contains multiple examples of successful arrangements with the private in some of the most underdeveloped regions of the country. Key lessons learned from this activity include: the impace of private sector participation reforms, importance of reliable data, merits of a flexible framework, and institutional incentive mechanisms for private sector participation.

 Lessons Learned from PPIAF Activities: Affordability and Universal Access in ICT Services in Cambodia

An ongoing PPIAF activity in Cambodia found that the main constraint for broadband adoption is not a lack of internet infrastructure but affordability. This affordability constraint does not only apply to households, but also public institutions—many of the schools and universities are not provided with a sufficient budget to pay for monthly broadband services. The lack of Khmer-language content on the internet and the lack of awareness of the benefits of broadband were also found to hinder broadband up-take.

Using Market Finance to Extend Water Supply Services in Peri-Urban and Rural Kenya

PPIAF partnered with the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid and the Water and Sanitation Program to facilitate commercial financing for community-based water providers in Kenya. As of June 2011, this activity has resulted in 18 sub-projects receiving a total of $1.5 million in financing. These projects are benefiting over 40,000 people in peri-urban and rural Kenya.  The related PPIAF Impact Story can be found here.

This International Finance Corporation SmartLesson explains how leveraging donor funds not only increases the volume of investments financed but also improves the sustainability of these investments by linking debt service to system functionality. Please click here for more detailed information.