MANAGEMENT AND FINANCING

Management: stakeholders  Central Government roads agency/ Donors  Rural Roads Unit at national/regional level  Local Government (District Engineer or Executing Agency)  Communities and NGO ’ s  Users

Management: centralised Centralised system  Integrates network improvement and maintenance at all levels (main, secondary, tertiary/ community  Coordinates national and donor funding via Road Funding Agency  Put in place conditions at national level for successfully using labour-based methods  Mandate Rural Roads Unit to assist local government (if any) to  Inventorize and prioritise core networks  Provide technical assistance and channel government/donor funding to core network (via Road Agency)  Manage improvement programmes (exceeding a defined cost)  Manage training (usually with donor contributions)

Management: local Decentralised system (central gov. as before)  Local government or assocations/NGO  Involve communities in selecting core networks  Programme and manage maintenance (and small improvement contrats)  Contract with private sector and village associations for maintainance  Raise local funding for maintenance  Adjust networks to satisfy poverty reduction objectives  Communities/politicians  Participate in core network selection  Participate in programming investment  Contribute paid labour  Monitor progress of works  Interest/user associations (Roads board)  Raise user contributions and liaise with them  Monitor maintenance quality

Management: options  Government could sub-contract implementation to an executing agency  Could be more sustainable from a technical and training standpoint but less so institutionally  Can also be costly and would require cost-sharing and TA from higer levels  Experienced supervision required  Delegate parts of the management cycle to local groups and NGO’s  Can work well for maintenance if villages cooperate but  Not for core network planning as leads to fragmentation of responsibility and incoherent networks In general, putting time and money into local and national institution-building is probably more sustainable despite high risks of failure

Management: general problems  National level  Financing is not multi-year and adjustable to needs  Inadequate knowledge of what is going on  Unwillingness to delegate  Local level  Training inadequate and not continous  Difficult to retain trained competent staff  Local enterprises not too competent and poorly supervised  Roads not durable and maintainable  Local funding unpredictable

Management: solutions  History teaches us that there is no quick fix  Lack of funds and knowledge is omnipresent in rural areas  Long term process in which we must learn from the many failures  And try, try again: as countries develop and redistribute conditions for sustainability will follow

Management: financing problems 1. Financing rehabilitation not a problem (donors normally have sufficient funds) 2. Road maintenance very expensive for rural communities 3. Central government funding erratic: road agency useful perhaps vital for continuity 4. Leakage of funds endemic in long supply lines from central gov. to community 5. Contractors pocket funds and cut corners 6. Rural road investment generally not sustainable without follow-up funds and TA

Management: financing solutions 1. Force donors to follow current planning practise, assess maintenance costs and confirm long-term funding and methods 2. Do not expect communities to fund maintenance even partially (never works)/ try to make richer users pay (market taxes,trading licenses, even tolls) 3. Ensure gov. uses maintenance funding mechanisms (tied or block grants and budgets for them and a funding agency) 4. Audit use of funds and act quickly when necessary/listen to community and user group complaints 5. Reinforce local capacity to manage contracts/ train private sector contractors and local associations/promote competition

Management: sustainability  Keep core network small and maintainable  look for alternatives to roads  keep roads cheap and allocate more to maintain them  but reinforce black spots (slopes curves, structures)  increase use by stimulating mobility in higher level networks (reliable and safe public transport within walking distance) Finally, expect to rebuild after eight years or so and train, train, train