Giuliano Bosi

This course is about the process of scoping and planning public sector investment projects and the basic knowledge and skills required for their financial and economic appraisal (‘ex-ante’ evaluation).

The focus is on urban infrastructure projects identified, prioritized, and appraised through local/municipal planning processes. Case studies include water supply and sewerage, urban transport, solid waste management and green infrastructure.

While offered as part of the Wagner’s Master of Urban Planning (MUP) International Planning Specialization and aligned with current practices of international development banks, the UN and other Aid Agencies, the course is intended for policy analysts, urban planners, and engineers working in both developed and developing countries, as most of its technical content is relevant to both contexts.

By taking this course, students should be able to:

• Understand how urban infrastructure projects are identified, prioritized, and appraised within the broader public sector investment programming and capital budgeting processes.
• Appreciate the need for well prepared “business cases” for urban infrastructure projects.
• Become familiar with the basic finance and welfare economics concepts underpinning the analysis of public sector investments and learn the basics of the Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) techniques.
• Understand how to assess the financial feasibility and bankability of development projects.
• Understand how to identify, quantify, and value the economic, social, and environmental externalities associated with development projects.
• Practice the integrated (technical, financial, institutional, economic, social, and environmental) appraisal of selected urban infrastructure projects of moderate scale and complexity and carry out a relevant risk analysis.

The course combines lectures and computer lab sessions for financial modeling of projects (in Excel) and the application of industry-standard software for probabilistic risk analysis (Oracle’s Crystal Ball).

The last three decades have witnessed a global proliferation of public sector restructuring, decentralization, and democratization in developing countries. Traditional development planning has adapted (unevenly) to these trends as they have unfolded. This course presents an overview of the evolution of the theory and practice of planning in developing countries with a particular focus on subnational governments. A central theme is that there are certain universal norms and processes in development planning, but the structure and performance of a planning system depend heavily on the economic, political, institutional and cultural context of a particular country. The course outlines and assesses planning models and systems, reviews approaches used by developing countries and international development agencies to support decentralization and local planning, and introduces a range of practices and tools used by local planners in developing countries. The overall focus is on how local planning systems, techniques and processes can be strategically designed and implemented to work effectively in different contexts. Detailed case studies and exercises based on them are an integral part of the course.