[sustran] Re: (fwd) [UTSG] transport strategy transfer
Craig Townsend
townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au
Mon Apr 26 13:06:05 JST 2004
Jonathan,
I agree, but the lack of attention to political factors by consultants has a
lot to do with who they are working for. Also, discussion of political
questions which could lead to an examination of who holds power and how (and
questions about winners and losers) is generally excluded from consultancies
which involve bilateral or multilateral development assistance. In the case of
the World Bank, Article IV of its Articles of Association clearly states this:
"The bank and its officers shall not interfere in the political affairs of any
member; nor shall they be influenced in their decisions by the political
characteristics of the member or members concerned. Only economic
considerations shall be relevant to their decisions, and these considerations
shall be weighted impartially"
It is also very difficult to conduct research on a topic like the politics of
bus service costs in Bangkok because there are powerful people who collect
rents from each route and identifying them could be dangerous for the
researcher!
> I think that BRT could have an important role in improving bus
> functionality in Bangkok, but I also think that much more of a basic
> nature needs to be done first to bring discipline to bus operations and
> basic levels of quality to services as a whole. Political issues do have
> to be incorporated into planning -- they are generally neglected by
> Western consultants, and that is a prime cause of dysfunctionality in the
> implementation which ensues. My concern is for the lowest-income users,
> who constitute the largest group but who are the most liable to be left
> out when any kind of modernization program comes into effect --Jonathan
>
Craig
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