AICD covers the five main public access network infrastructures that underpin the functioning of any economy.
For the purposes of the diagnostic, infrastructure is defined to include the main networks that underpin the economy—air transport, information and communication technologies (ICT), irrigation, ports, power, railways, roads, sanitation and water. The emphasis is on public infrastructure, so AICD does not cover oil and gas pipelines or private port and rail infrastructure dedicated to the exclusive use of particular mineral or industrial activities. Neither does it consider needs for water-storage infrastructure required to protect countries from droughts and floods beyond those necessitated by particular downstream uses such as generation of electricity, irrigation, and water supply. Social infrastructure – such as schools and clinics – does not fall within the scope of the AICD.
AICD’s first phase covered 24 Sub-Saharan countries; almost all of the remaining countries were added in a second phase that began in mid-2008. The Phase I countries together account for about 85 percent of the population and GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa and include most of the region’s major countries (figure). Because the sample of countries chosen for Phase I closely matches Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, it is statistically representative and provides a good basis for inferences about the infrastructure of Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Phase II covered almost all of the remaining countries in Sub-Saharan Africa plus those of North Africa. Data collection for Phase II was shared between the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank.
AIKP is the successor project to AICD and is ensuring that critical data collection and analysis of Africa's infrastructure sectors will continue into the future on a sustainable basis. The Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program (AIKP) is the successor project to the AICD. AIKP is being conducted under the leadership of the African Development Bank, and being implemented within a framework of close collaboration with the National Statistical Agencies of all African countries. Unlike AICD, which was a one-time effort at data collection, AIKP aims to provide a long term sustainable basis for data collection and analysis on Africa's infrastructure sectors. AIKP also aims to institutionalize infrastructure data collection in Africa by mainstreaming infrastructure statistics in the work programs of National Statistical Agencies. AIKP is based on the methodological framework developed under the AICD, and will take this framework forward continuing to update on-line databases and produce new and updated analysis of infrastructure issues in Africa.