A critical systems approach to infrastructure investment and resource management in developing countries

There is an urgent need to increase the level of infrastructure stock and to improve the flow of financial, material, technological and human resources in developing countries. Earlier research work has identified the magnitude of both problems but the need to link infrastructure development to resource management has not been adequately addressed. The approaches developed so far, underpinned by incremental and formal planning philosophy, have been either too hard, rigid or fragmented. An alternative approach recognising the intrinsic link and complex interrelationship between actors and factors in the infrastructure and resource development process, as well as the relevance of both hard and soft variables in the decision-making process is therefore required. The literature review explores the problems of infrastructure and resource development and provides the empirical basis for developing a comprehensive approach using problem structuring and systems techniques and tools. This research was prompted by the limitation of existing approaches, and the need to develop a systemic methodology more appropriate in the context of developing countries where resource markets are often underdeveloped. The problems of fragmentation, rigidity and the quantitative bias of previous approaches are addressed by developing an innovative informed approach. The InfORMED (Infrastructure Organisation, Resource Management, Evaluation and Development) methodology developed is an enlightened approach consistent with critical systems theory. The methodology, capable of interactions at all levels of decision making, consists of three hierarchically linked models capturing both infrastructure demand and resource supply side issues. At the core of the methodology is a strategic infrastructure resource-based mathematical model, supported by an expandable relational database of hard project/programme and resource variables, horizontally interacting with an issue-based information framework of soft institutional variables. The institutional variables which have an organisational-based and rule-based dimension facilitates the exploration of demand and/or supply strategies in response to hard output information on project and resource status. The policy model incorporating an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) approach addresses policy priority issues using a horizontal systemic interactions of policy variables reflecting complex interactions between a variety of socio-economic, institutional, foreign sector and environmental factors. The vertical interaction between the strategic and policy models reflects the contribution of infrastructure projects to various policies, the requirement for policy intervention where there are policy gaps and/or the ranking of infrastructure projects where there are resource gaps. The operational model is only conceptually illustrated to demonstrate the horizontal interactions at the operational level, as well as vertical interactions between the other two models at the strategic and policy levels. The functionality of the methodology is evaluated using a case study approach. The results demonstrate the applicability and potential of the methodology in terms of practical application. More importantly, the framework represents a significant contribution to knowledge as it does not only provide a better understanding of infrastructure resource decision making processes, but facilitates the development of coherent policy and strategy, enabling prioritisation when all demands cannot be fulfilled, scaling tasks and setting achievable objectives and targets.