| In an effort to make development programs more effective, decentralization of the public sector decision-making and increased participation of local stakeholders in the process are viewed and being adopted as a strategy for rural/local development.; Since transportation is widely recognized as a necessary ingredient of rural development, there is a need for an Appraisal Process, Institutions and Techniques that are adjusted to the new political and administrative environment in which the decisions about the provision of transport infrastructure are made.; The centralized or the “old” environment for the appraisal of Sub-National Transportation Infrastructure can be described as a bottom-up planning process and the “top-to-bottom” financing mechanisms.; The parties involved in the decentralised appraisal process can be identified as the Local Stakeholders, Local Government, the Regional/State/Provincial Government or Administration and the Facilitator(s)/Analyst(s).; The determinant appraisal factors are (i) entities involved in the Appraisal Process, (ii) the type of Sub National Transport Infrastructure, (iii) Source(s) of funding and condition attached to it (them), (iv) Type of Decentralisation.; These factors determine two Planning Processes, the Local and the Regional Planning Processes.; The Local Planning Process refers to a situation in which a Local Government, using its own resources plans investments, which are clearly within its administrative purview. Here the preference structure used is that of a Local Transportation Planning Board which is set up by the Local Government to secure the consultation and participation of territory-defined communities and interest-based groups in the local decision-making. Meanwhile, the Regional Planning Process refers to a situation in which the Regional/Provincial/State the Government/Administration using its own resources plans investments for which it is the responsible for Provision and Production.; Negotiation and Coordination of Local and Regional Planning Processes refer to a common step in which two relatively autonomous levels of government, responsible for two different categories of Sub-National projects and related planning processes, go through an attempt to reconcile and harmonize their own priorities and affect the outcome of their relatively independent planning processes by carrying out an exercise of collaborative “negotiation”.; The dissertation provides a multi-level methodological framework for decision-making on transportation projects in the decentralized environment in terms of institutions involved, techniques to apply and planning steps to follow. The step-by-step guidelines provide a protocol for the utilization of the model. The example, which supplements the guidelines, shows its openness, flexibility and what it does and how it can be used in practice.; The application of the proposed methodological framework requires the resource skills of facilitators)/analyst(s) or Planner(s) and Planning Institutions be developed at the Sub-National Levels of Decision-Making. |
