The lack of infrastructure is nowhere more crucial and potentially transformational than in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, major donors and multilateral institutions in collaboration with the World Bank investigated this challenge of addressing the region’s glaring infrastructure gap. That comprehensive regional analysis aimed to establish “a baseline against which future improvements in infrastructure services can be measured” and guide priority investments and policy reforms. The analysis estimated that the region needed $93 billion per year to fill the infrastructure gap. The purpose of this paper is to begin that conversation by analyzing how the main sources of infrastructure financing have evolved over the last eight years, 2 the distribution of that financing by country and sector, and how financing efforts have responded to the recommendations made in 2009. Thus, this paper offers recommendations on how to better exploit the political, technical, and financial synergies needed to address the infrastructure gap. It is not feasible in this analysis to assess specific investments against actual needs by country and sector, and so this report underscores the need for an update of the 2009 study.
