View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Research Papers in Economics United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report Office OCCASIONAL PAPER Background paper for HDR 2003 Country case studies on the challenges facing landlocked developing countries Thomas Snow, Michael Faye, John McArthur and Jeffrey Sachs 2003 COUNTRY CASE STUDIES ON THE CHALLENGES FACING LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY THOMAS SNOW, MICHAEL FAYE, JOHN MCARTHUR AND JEFFREY SACHS JANUARY 2003 Provisional Draft: Please do not cite without author's permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We would like to acknowledge the valuable input of Guido Schmidt-Traub, Michael Salter and David Wright for their research assistance, of Malanding Jaiteh for his GIS data analysis and map construction, and of Nuño Limao and Anthony Venables for the use of their freight quote data. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 2 INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT................................................................................... 3 Landlocked Countries and Their Maritime Neighbours ......................................... 3 Measures of Relative Human Development Amongst Landlocked States ............. 5 Measures of Relative Landlockedness.................................................................... 6 PART 2: OBSERVATIONS FROM THE CASE STUDIES..................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 8 TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES.................................................................................. 8 Dependence Upon Infrastructure Levels In Transit Nations .................................. 8 Fees and Direct Costs due to High Administrative Burden.................................. 10 Time Delays due High Administrative Burden .................................................... 11 POLITICAL CHALLENGES............................................................................................ 12 Diplomatic Relationship between Landlocked Countries and their Transit Neighbours............................................................................................................ 12 Vulnerability to Conflict Within Transit Nations ................................................. 14 PART 3: COUNTRY CASE STUDIES ............................................................................... 15 AFRICA - SOUTHERN .................................................................................................. 16 Southern Africa General Overview ...................................................................... 16 Botswana............................................................................................................... 21 Lesotho.................................................................................................................. 23 Malawi .................................................................................................................. 26 Swaziland.............................................................................................................. 29 Zambia .................................................................................................................. 31 Zimbabwe ............................................................................................................. 34 AFRICA - CENTRAL AND EASTERN ............................................................................. 36 Burundi ................................................................................................................. 36 Ethiopia................................................................................................................. 40 Uganda .................................................................................................................. 44 Rwanda ................................................................................................................. 47 AFRICA - WESTERN.................................................................................................... 50 Burkina Faso ......................................................................................................... 50 Central African Republic ...................................................................................... 53 Chad ...................................................................................................................... 56 Niger ..................................................................................................................... 59 Mali....................................................................................................................... 62 ASIA - CENTRAL ........................................................................................................ 65 Afghanistan........................................................................................................... 67 Kazakhstan............................................................................................................ 70 Kyrgyzstan ............................................................................................................ 73 Tajikistan............................................................................................................... 76 Turkmenistan ........................................................................................................ 79 Uzbekistan............................................................................................................. 82 CAUCASUS AND MOLDOVA........................................................................................ 85 Armenia................................................................................................................. 85 Azerbaijan............................................................................................................. 88 Moldova ................................................................................................................ 92 ASIA - EASTERN......................................................................................................... 95 Bhutan................................................................................................................... 95 Laos....................................................................................................................... 98 Nepal................................................................................................................... 101 Mongolia............................................................................................................. 104 SOUTH AMERICA...................................................................................................... 106 Bolivia................................................................................................................. 106 Paraguay.............................................................................................................. 109 GLOSSARY .................................................................................................................. 111 PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 112 APPENDICES................................................................................................................ 121 PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND - 1 - INTRODUCTION Over two centuries ago, Adam Smith suggested that the inland parts of Africa and Asia were the least developed areas of the world and that due to the difficulty of trade in those areas, they would not benefit from the gains to specialisation of their coastal neighbours. Two hundred years later, the Human Development Report 2002 paints a stark picture for the landlocked countries of the world: it classifies thirteen of the modern landlocked countries as low development; nine of these are amongst the world’s twelve least developed countries; none of the non-European landlocked countries1 are classified as high human development. What are the specific challenges facing landlocked countries? While numerous planning papers, legal documents, and transport studies2 have attempted to address these questions, these papers focus on specific nations or regions, thus precluding a global cross country analysis. Other papers consider agglomerated economic, social, and financial data for landlocked countries3 thereby not addressing the specific problems of the political, transit and social environment in these countries. This report furthers the discussion by presenting a systematic assessment of all 30 landlocked countries with a Human Development Index less than 0.76. To distill the primary challenges facing landlocked countries, the report has been centred on 30 case studies. Each of these is divided into infrastructure, trade, and international relations sections, detailing the primary challenges that each of these countries faces in getting its goods to international markets. Because of the overlapping nature of infrastructure, trade and international relations, these sections should be read as a whole to provide an overall understanding of the problems facing each of the landlocked countries. Building on the information contained