Governance, Mobility and Citizen Engagement Governance Processes in the Transport Sector in the Republic of Guinea

DEGREE PROJECT IN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND URBAN MANAGEMENT, SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2020

Governance, mobility and citizen engagement Governance Processes in the Transport Sector in the Republic of Guinea

CHRISTELLE FERMANIAN

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 7 2 BACKGROUND ...... 10 3 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 14 3.1 The importance of the transport sector in the development of Guinea ...... 15 3.2 The colonization and the disengagement of Western countries with the end of the cold war ...... 17 3.3 The implication of China in the development of African countries ...... 18 3.4 Governance processes and the failure of governance processes in Guinea, and alternative processes to face them ...... 20 3.4.1 Governance processes ...... 20 3.4.2 The failure governance processes in Guinea ...... 20 3.4.3 Alternative planning processes based on the involvement of citizens ...... 21 3.4.4 Justice in planning and governance processes ...... 22 4 METHODOLOGY ...... 24 4.1 A comparative case study approach ...... 24 4.2 Two methods to collect primary and secondary data ...... 25 4.2.1 Desk based study ...... 25 4.2.2 Semi-structured interviews ...... 26 4.3 Reliability of the methodology ...... 29 5 CASES STUDIES ...... 31 5.1 Case study n°1: the Conakry Express ...... 31 5.2 Case study n°2: the Conakry-Kindia line ...... 33 6 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ...... 36 6.1 Result n°1: The development of the transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy ...... 37 6.1.1 The mining sector and the importance of the transport sector ...... 37 6.1.2 The agricultural sector and the importance of the transport sector ...... 39 6.2 Result n°2: Many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea, and they face different issues ...... 40 6.2.1 The numerous local actors involved in the transport sector of Guinea ..... 40 6.2.2 Issues faced by the numerous local actors in this transport sector ...... 41 6.3 Result n°3: International actors create opportunities and threats for the country in terms of social and economic development ...... 42 6.4 Result n°4: International actors, private actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects ...... 44 6.4.1 The prioritization process ...... 44 6.4.2 The development of Investment Plan ...... 45 6.4.3 Improvement of the current legislative framework ...... 46 6.5 Result n°5: Studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens ...... 47 7 CONCLUSION ...... 49 8 APPENDIX: INTERVIEWS ...... 51 8.1 Questions ...... 51 8.1.1 Questions’ themes for the users’ group: ...... 52 8.1.2 Questions’ themes for the actors’ group ...... 52 8.2 The users’ group ...... 53 8.2.1 Mathieu’s interview ...... 53 8.2.2 Alice’s interview ...... 54 8.2.3 David’s interview ...... 58 8.2.4 Madeleine’s interview ...... 59 8.2.5 Ines’ interview ...... 60 8.3 The actors’ interviews ...... 62 8.3.1 Roberto’s interview ...... 62 9 REFERENCES ...... 63

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Guinean Road Network (SOFRECO, 2019) ...... 11 Figure 2: Links between Literature Review Themes and Research Questions ..... 15 Figure 3: Interviews' map (Google maps) ...... 27 Figure 4: Structure of the interviews ...... 27 Figure 5: The interviews - Summary ...... 29 Figure 6: The Conakry Express (ConakryInfos, 2017) ...... 31 Figure 7: The Conakry Express (Google maps) ...... 32 Figure 8: Kindia Station (Kankan Radio, 2019) ...... 33 Figure 9: Conakry-Kindia line (Google maps) ...... 34 Figure 10: Links between Results, Literature Review Themes and Research Questions ...... 37 Figure 11: Bauxite and gold deposits in Guinea (Guinea Minier Symposium, 2018) ...... 38 Figure 12: Car with a driver ...... 55 Figure 13: Car with militaries ...... 55 Figure 14: Car with a driver ...... 56 Figure 15: Car with transport of goods on the roof ...... 56 Figure 16: A break during the journey on a paved road ...... 57 Figure 17: An unpaved road ...... 57 Figure 18: A man trying to cross a flooded road during the rainy season ...... 58 Figure 19: A car with the inscription “n’oublie pas ta maman” ...... 60 Figure 20: A car in the dust ...... 61 Figure 21: A car with the driver and luggage on the roof ...... 61

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all I would like to thank Andrew Karvonen who was my supervisor throughout this master thesis and helped me to define my subject and structure my thinking. Thank you for your advice and positivism, which motivated me and convinced me to give my best to this project.

Thanks also to Théo Audigier, from SOFRECO company where I work, who supervised me during my internship and helped me discover the issues behind transport infrastructure development in African countries. I would also like to thank all the SOFRECO teams, especially the Transport, Energy and Infrastructure department, who welcomed me in this company and allowed me to work in parallel on this research project.

I would like to thank all the KTH supervising staff, my teachers and fellow students of the EESIA Master's degree with whom I had the chance to spend a year and who taught me that becoming an engineer could be done with the aim of creating a sustainable and equitable world. Thanks also to Karolina Isaksson who accepted to evaluate my master thesis, and to Johanna Abrahamsson who will be my opponent.

Thank you to all the people who participated in this research project by agreeing to be interviewed, to discuss the themes addressed, to read my thesis and to advise me on all aspects.

ABSTRACT

Governance processes are very complicated in the transport sector in the Republic of Guinea, because of a multiplicity of actors (a complicated institutional framework, the involvement of western countries and China in the country, and the power of the private sector with the mining companies), a historical background (the engagement and disengagement of western countries with the colonization), and a lack of financial means from the government. However, the transport sector is very important in terms of development for Guinea, first because the economy of the country is based on mines and agriculture (both needing an efficient transport sector) and secondly because of a growing population in the last decade. This research project will study how current governance processes in the transport sector in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. The evolution of the transport sector during the last decade, the actors, their governance processes and how they align with and contradict development expectations in the Republic of Guinea, and how these processes can be improved will be assessed. Through a literature review, a desk-based study, the analyze of two specific case studies, and interviews, this research project comes up to different findings. The development of transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy: many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea and face different issues, but there are also international actors who create opportunities and threats in terms of social and economic development. To lower these threats, international actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects. Different processes can be implemented in term of prioritization of projects and funding planning. To have better governance processes, studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens as real stakeholders of the development of this transport sector. This can be done through different processes that must lead to the development of an efficient, safe and affordable transport sector for all.

SAMMANFATTNING

Styrningsprocesser är mycket komplicerade inom transportsektorn i Republiken Guinea på grund av ett flertal aktörer (ett komplicerat institutionellt ramverk, västländers och Kinas engagemang i landet och den privata sektorns makt med gruvföretag), en historisk bakgrund (västländers engagemang och frikoppling av koloniseringen) och brist på ekonomiska medel från regeringen. Transportsektorn är emellertid mycket viktig när det gäller utvecklingen för Guinea, först eftersom landets ekonomi är baserad på gruvor och jordbruk (båda behöver en effektiv transportsektor) och för det andra på grund av en växande befolkning under det senaste decenniet. Detta forskningsprojekt kommer att studera hur nuvarande styrningsprocesser i transportsektorn i Republiken Guinea anpassar sig till landets utvecklingsbehov. Utvecklingen av transportsektorn under det senaste decenniet, aktörerna, deras styrningsprocesser och hur de anpassar sig till och motsäger utvecklingsförväntningarna i Republiken Guinea och hur dessa processer kan förbättras kommer att bedömas. Genom en litteraturöversikt, en genomgång av sekundärkällor, analys av två specifika fallstudier och intervjuer kommer detta forskningsprojekt fram till följande resultat. Utvecklingen av transportsektorn är viktig i Guineas ekonomi: många lokala aktörer är involverade i transportsektorn i Guinea och står inför olika frågor, men det finns också internationella aktörer som skapar möjligheter och hot när det gäller social och ekonomisk utveckling. För att mildra dessa hot måste internationella aktörer och staten samordnas när det gäller finansiering av transportprojekt. Olika processer kan implementeras i samband med prioritering av projekt och finansieringsplanering. För att få bättre styrningsprocesser, studier och processer för prioritering av projekt måste medborgarna involveras som verkliga intressenter i utvecklingen av denna transportsektor. Detta kan göras genom olika processer som måste leda till utvecklingen av en effektiv, säker och prisvärd transportsektor för alla.

1 INTRODUCTION

Transport is one of the main issues in the developing countries. Mobility inside cities or in the country is a way to develop and facilitate exchanges of people and goods, and have direct impacts on nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals defined by United Nations in 2015 (United Nation, 2015): no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities. Planning, financing and managing the development and the maintenance of infrastructure is a challenge in developing countries, especially when government do not have the amount of money needed, and when institutional and social instability put a brake on long-term planning and policies.

The Republic of Guinea, also named Guinea-Conakry, is a West African country (part of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States) that took its independence from French colonization in 1958. It is a very rich country in term of natural resources (especially mineral and water resources) but faces a lot of challenges in term of development, especially in the transport sector.

Indeed, the transport sector is very important for the Guinean economy, which is mostly based on agriculture and mining, both sectors needing good transport axes to assure the transport of goods. Socially, the transport sector is also very meaningful because the Republic of Guinea is facing an important demographic issue: according to the UN, people under fourteen years old accounted for 42% of the population in 2016. Cities like Conakry are crowded and mobility is complicated between the city and the suburb, and the consequences are an increase of the congestion and pollution of the city. Inside the country, the lack of public transport and the poor state of the road network create long travels that can last for several days for people who want to find jobs, education or health care in other cities. Nowadays, the transport sector in Guinea is mostly based on road transport. According to the 2019 Sectorial Political Letter on the transport sector, Guinea reaches a density of 18.4 km of roads per 100 km² with a total of more than 45,000 km of roads. About 30% of the roads are paved; this ratio is low compared to other West African countries. People who do not have private cars use taxis or magbanas (minibuses) to go from a city to another, or motorcycle-taxis inside the

cities. These official transport are organized but not well regulated (a lot of driver do not have any licenses), and very dangerous. The 2019 Sectorial Political Letter explains that the airline network is not developed inside the country (the only operational airport is in Conakry, the capital city) and the only existing railway network is developed and used by mining companies. The only public transport that exists is the Conakry-Express, a 30-km train line between Kagbelen and Kaloum in Conakry suburb.

Moreover, transport planning in Guinea is complicated because of the multiplicity of actors. Historically, the engagement of the French people with the colonization, and their disengagement with the independence and the end of the cold war left traces. Matthew Lockwood (Will a Marshall Plan for Africa Make Poverty History, 2005) and Peter Ekeh (Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa, 1975) explain the impacts that colonization had (and still has nowadays) on developing countries like Guinea, especially in terms of governance and development. The infrastructure and the transport sector are facing these governance problems.

Then, we have seen in the last decades the rise of the implication of China in the development of African countries, as a new actor in the governance processes in the development of infrastructure. Félix Edoho (Globalization and Marginalization of Africa: Contextualization of China-Africa Relations, 2011) and Chris Alden (China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon?, 2009) assess the implication of this new actor, and the consequences that can already be seen in some places and sectors, such as in the transport sector. They explain that China is omnipresent in Africa, and that this partnership helped African development and globalization, but that this relation is very unequal, to the detriment of African countries such as Guinea.

This involvement of international actors (western countries and Africa) in the governance processes in the transport sector raises different opportunities and threats in the transport sector in West Africa especially in Guinea. This involvement is accompanied by the involvement of private actors such as the mining companies that develop their own transport networks without real management from the state. These uncoordinated actions have consequences on the social and economic development of the country.

These interactions lead to the governance concept, which is “an instrument for conceptualizing issues on the boundary between the social and the political, or in current technology, between state, market and civil society” (Kooiman, 2003, page 8) and to the study of governance processes in Guinea, and their failures. However, it is possible to improve these complicated governance processes: planning processes and alternative solutions have been studied by searchers in the last decades, such as Gerry Stoker (Governance as theory: five propositions, 1998) who assesses the notion of interactions and networks in governance processes, by Andreas Faludi (Multi-Level (Territorial) Governance: Three Criticisms, 2012) who explains that planners are nowadays invoking “multi-level governance” whereas “governance” is supposed to gather all kinds of collective actions intended by different types of stakeholders. The involvement of citizens is seen as a necessity regarding the issues raised by the governance processes in Guinea: as Vanessa Watson explains (Conflicting Rationalities: Implications for Planning Theory and Ethics, 2003) colonization has created a situation with western institutions and traditional habits, and there are a lot of misunderstanding

and controversies in African developing countries between decision-makers and citizens when we talk about infrastructure planning. The lack of research regarding governance processes in the transport sector in Guinea leads to wonder how current governance processes in transport projects in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. This question raises four research questions for this research project: 1. How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?

2. Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?

3. How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?

4. What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?

The geographical scope of this research project is the Republic of Guinea because the governance processes in this country are very specific: the historical and new involvement of international countries and the richness of the mining sector make complicated the elaboration of coordinated a long-term transport plans. Moreover, having a country as a scope is interesting because it is a way to cover the urban and rural mobility issues, which are very different. A region (ECOWAS for example) would be too broad to fully understand the institutional functioning, and choosing a city (for example Conakry) would focus more on urban issues and overshadow some major issues in terms of transportation in the country.

To answer to these research objectives, the methodology of this research project is based on a comparative case study approach (two specific case studies of transport projects in Guinea will be described, assessed and compared in order to have realistic and applied results on the question of these governance processes) and two methods to collect primary and secondary data. These methods are semi- structured interviews (seven interviews conducted with different types of stakeholders involved in these governance processes) and a desk based study (based on newspapers, websites and policy documents).

This methodology leads this research project to five main themes of findings that cover firstly the fact that the development of transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy, and that many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea and face different issues. International actors create opportunities and threats for the country in terms of social and economic development, and to lower the threats, international actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects. To have better governance processes, studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens as real stakeholders of the development of this transport sector.

2 BACKGROUND

The Republic of Guinea, a country of 12.7 million people (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018), has an average population density of about 48 inhabitants per square kilometre, and a total area of 245,720 km².

Despite its many natural resources (including mining), Guinea remains one of the poorest countries in the region: in 2012, 35% of the population lived below the poverty line (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018), and the labor force is only 7 million (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). The socio- political stakes of recent decades have thus weakened the institutions, the economic situation (low growth, sharp deterioration of the management of public finances with large budget deficits, high inflation, and weight debt) and the social situation (increasing poverty, gender disparities). These different factors have hampered different poverty reduction strategies and plans, especially in the transport sector.

In addition, in 2016, 16% of the coated network was categorized as bad (Sectorial Political Letter, 2019). The roads have not been maintained for about 20 years, which explains their advanced degradation. The high general rainfall and aisle overloads regularly observed on trucks aggravate the phenomenon (Sectorial Political Letter, 2019). As a result, some areas remain heavily landlocked; others become so again, especially areas with high agricultural potential. Production faces great difficulties in accessing markets, which has a strong impact on commercial value chains and the movement of populations. Worse, the weak road network has significantly reduced the activity of the formal sector, demonstrating the urgency of building roads connecting strategic routes (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). More locally, the lack of public transport and the special geographical location of Conakry, located at the tip of an already congested peninsula, cause significant delays and traffic jams to get there and out (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 51). Planning for future infrastructure must take this issue into account and facilitate the de-cluttering of the city.

Figure 1: Guinean Road Network (SOFRECO, 2019)

Over the past decade, the Guinean government has undertaken numerous economic development actions to reduce these imbalances. The development of the national territory, and in particular the transport sector, is at the heart of this development. For example, a National Transport Plan (NTP) realized in 2002 for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Public Works presents all the projects planned for the years 2002-2040 in order to ensure the development of this sector. However, a Sectorial Political Letter (SPL) from 2019, written and published by the Guinean State, shows that between 2002 and 2019 only a few things changed and many projects planned were not implemented, most of the time for questions of money.

The main objective of the 2002 NTP for road transport was to have a “comprehensive, efficient, safe, secure and extensive road network of internal and external transport services and connections, offering acceptable transport, safety and environmental conditions at the lowest possible cost” (NTP, 2002, Vol. 4, page 96). According to the current data of the SPL 2019 (presented earlier), this objective has not been achieved today. With regard to the rail network, the 2002 NTP expressed the intention to develop a surface metro project to draw up an urban travel plan for the Conakry metropolitan area. This project came into being under the name Conakry Express. However, in the air sector, no progress was observed: the objective of the 2002 NTP was to have a network of regional airports with a good level of service, facilitating the development of a network of domestic lines serving remote regions (Labé, Kankan, Nzérékoré), and a network of neighbourhood lines. There is currently no operational airport in Guinea except that of Conakry. In addition, railway lines operated by mining companies were not covered in the 2002 NTP, and need to be rationally integrated in planning now. Indeed, in recent years, a Master Plan for the Development of Auxiliary Mining Transport Infrastructure has been developed by the Ministry of Transport and the mining companies in order to promote the coherence of the transport network used by the mining companies by increasing their collaboration (SPL, 2019). This willingness to

strengthen cooperation between private and public actors with the aim of increasing the coherence of each one's projects and major strategic orientations was materialized by a first agreement in 2015 between the Guinean State and these companies regarding the Kamsar - Sangaredi railway (SPL, 2019). Legislation concerning the mutualisation of railway lines is an essential factor in coherent development, and has therefore evolved somewhat in recent years, although it was not a primary goal of the 2002 NTP.

At the same time, Guinea's economy is rebounding, with a growth rate of 8.8% in 2017 according to the World Bank, despite a slowdown to 5.8% in 2018 (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). At the level of recent years, this represents a significant change, especially compared to the low or negative rates of the beginning of the decade (an increase of 1.9% in 2010 and a decrease of 0.3% in 2009).

Guinea's economy relies mainly on mining production (it owns one third of the world's bauxite reserves and is one of the largest producers of diamonds and gold) and agriculture (which accounts for 24% of the country's GDP). The World Bank states, in a Country Diagnostic In 2018, that “Mining and agriculture have been the drivers of economic growth in Guinea” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 9). On the one side, the mining production is controlled by mining private companies that need good transportation of goods and develop their own railway lines and other transportation modes. On the other side, “about 80% of the population is employed in the agriculture sector, most of them poor, with almost 90 percent of the poor and the extreme poor living in rural areas” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 1). The agriculture sector is important in Guinean economy, not because of the amount of money engaged, but because of the number of people living thanks to this activity.

Despite this huge importance in the development of the country, the transport sector faces a lot of problem in Guinea. The rainy season and the lack of road maintenance result in a network in very poor condition, unsafe, with very few communication routes and an absence of public transport. Journeys within Guinea are long, dangerous, and uncomfortable. Passenger transport is carried out in the same way as goods transport: in old vehicles filled to capacity, in a very informal way without any real regulation and control of drivers' skills. Urban transport is no better, large cities like Conakry are completely congested, journeys last hours, are almost exclusively by car, and dramatically increase the pollution of the city.

The necessary investments in the transport sector require a lot of money, which the Guinean Government cannot provide. This results, in addition to institutional fragility, in the continued involvement of Western countries and China in transport development projects. Compared to other African countries, China was involved very early in the development of Guinea: since the end of the 50s and the independence of Guinea in 1958, China has supported the young Guinean state by granting official development aid and by sending a team of experts and technicians (Ibrahima Ahmed Barry, 2017), especially regarding transportation and transport projects.

These transport projects unfortunately present many threats for the sustainable development of the country, firstly because they do not resolve the problems of institutional weakness of the Guinean Government, and secondly because they do not take Guinean citizens into account in the decision-making processes.

These failures in the governance processes implemented in the transport sector are mentioned by the World Bank: “The growth performance diagnostic indicates that poor political and economic governance lie at the center of Guinea’s development difficulties” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 34). Presented as a core element of the development issues existing in Guinea, these governance processes need to be studied and assessed in order to develop alternative solutions.

3 LITERATURE REVIEW

This Literature Review is composed of four themes that represent well the state of the research regarding these ideas of governance processes, transportation, and developing countries especially the Republic of Guinea. These themes are directly related to the different findings and result that will be found on chapter 6.

These four themes are:

§ A: The importance of the transport sector in the development of Guinea § B: The historical background of the involvement of international actors (western countries) in developing countries, especially in the transport sector, with the colonization, and the disengagement of western countries with the end of the cold war; § C: The implication of China in the development of African countries; § D: Governance and the failure of governance processes in Guinea, and alternative processes to face them.

Theme A is directly related to the research question n°1 (Q1: How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?) and n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?). The aim of this theme is to examine what are the links developed in the literature between good transportation sector and sustainable development, especially in developing countries like Guinea. This theme will help to answer to these research questions n°1 and 3, to fully and rightly analyze the evolution of the transport sector of Guinea over the last decade, and the impact on the development of the country. Theme B is related to the research question n°2 (Q2: Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?). As it was explained in the Introduction and in the Background chapters, international actors, especially western countries have been involved a lot in developing countries like Guinea. These mechanisms due to colonization and decolonization have been studied by researchers and will be described in this theme to answer to this question. Theme C is also related to this research question n°2: after the involvement of western countries, researchers have analyzed the appearance of China in this context of developing infrastructure projects in the transport sector. This analyze is

necessary to address the question of key actors and key processes in the transport sector in Guinea. Theme D is linked to the research question n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?) and n°4 (Q4: What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?). The literature shows some critics regarding these processes in Guinea, and many authors have assessed the development of alternative governance processes in order to face these failures.

Literature Review Themes Research questions

Theme A Q1 and Q3

Theme B Q2

Theme C Q2

Theme D Q3 and Q4

Figure 2: Links between Literature Review Themes and Research Questions 3.1 The importance of the transport sector in the development of Guinea The transport sector is one of the most important sectors in terms of sustainable economic development in developing countries. Indeed, this notion of transport is at the heart of the majority of SDGs (United Nations, 2015) as explained in the introduction. The economy of a country is based on its trade in goods; these exchanges can only take place properly with an efficient transport sector. In addition, on a social level, raw materials such as food and clothing must be able to circulate on the territory, as well as medicines. Transporting people is also very important, in order to ensure access to education and healthcare for all, and to increase access to work. Among infrastructure, transport infrastructure has a real direct impact on the economy and society of a country, especially a developing country like Guinea.

As Fulmer (2009, page 30) explains, infrastructure has many different definitions. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (2009):

The infrastructure supporting human activities includes complex and interrelated physical, social, ecological, economic, and technological systems such as transportation and energy production and distribution; water resources management; waste management; facilities supporting urban and rural communities; communications; sustainable resources development; and environmental protection.

Transportation is enumerated as the first type of infrastructure in this definition, and has an impact on all the aspects of the development of a society. Fulmer follows that definition and explains that infrastructure provides essential products and services to enable, maintain or improve the living conditions of a society. He presents infrastructure as essential elements of our lives: « Infrastructure systems or networks of inter-related components are the analogous arteries and veins attaching society to the essential commodities and services required to uphold or improve the standards of living» (Fulmer, 2009, page 30).

Moreover, infrastructure development is one of the most important things in developing countries. Fulmer explains that « Infrastructure needs are especially pronounced in emerging economies whose citizens struggle to gain access to even the most basic life-supporting commodities and services» (Fulmer, 2009, page 32). Among the different types of infrastructure, David Canning and Marianne Fay decided to quantify the impact of transportation on economic growth, and come up to the same conclusion: after analysing panel data from 96 countries to calculate and compare the marginal product of transport infrastructure, they explain that « there is evidence that the rate of return to transportation infrastructure is very high in middle income countries that are undergoing rapid development » (Canning and Fay, 1993, page 28). They also explain that the impact of infrastructure is slow but long lasting: an increase in transport infrastructure has little impact on short- term production but leads to higher growth rates and higher long-term production.

This little short-term impact of infrastructure development in developing countries is a problem. Indeed infrastructure projects « typically involve substantial capital investment » (Fulmer, 2009, page 30), and a lack of direct return on investment will lead to less investment and capitals.

This impact of infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, on developing countries is especially true for Guinea. Lan, Chen and Lim decided, in 2016, to study the specific case of Guinea and the impact of infrastructure (on a broad level) on the development of the country. They explain that « the lack of infrastructure in many developing countries represents one of the most significant limitations to the economic growth and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals » (Lan, Chen and Lim, 2016, page 277) and, in front of the lack of studies regarding Guinea, decided to study the case of this country. They examined the current development of infrastructure in Guinea and examined the relationship between infrastructure and economic growth and the differences in infrastructure to contribute to economic growth. They analysed data from the World Bank and Guinean official data, and used economic models to evaluate the impact of infrastructure on the development of Guinea. The strong link that they observed between these two notions led them to suggest to the government of Guinea to “through direct investment and mobilization of social resources, invest on a large scale investment in transportation, energy, telecommunication construction and other infrastructures” (Lan, Chen and Lim, 2016, page 289), in order to improve related areas of shortage of products or services and provide an important basis for an efficient economic growth. As Fulmer explains, « infrastructure systems are costly and their focus is not on individuals, segregated groups, or independent companies, but on broader society» (Fulmer, 2009, page 31): the huge impact of infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, on the development of Guinea justify important and coherent investment from all stakeholders of this sector.

These investments have to be coordinated between the different actors involved in this sector, and these actors are numerous.

3.2 The colonization and the disengagement of Western countries with the end of the cold war To fully understand the involvement of so many actors in the transport sector of Guinea, especially international western actors, we need to fully understand the history behind this involvement. This history is directly related to the colonization and the impacts that colonization had (and still has nowadays) on developing countries like Guinea. Development politics in Guinea have been very complicated and unstable during the last centuries. Colonialism, post-colonized period, cold war, post-cold war period succeeded to each other, and we are now in a globalized world in which Guinea has difficulties to exist as a main actor, despite its many resources. Growth and development are in progress for many years (especially in the infrastructure, including the transport sector), but the progression could have been much better, and this slowness is directly related to the colonialist past of Guinea.

In "Will a Marshall Plan for Africa Make Poverty History?", Matthew Lockwood (2005) looks at the consequences of colonialism on the development of African countries. He discusses how Western countries can help African countries achieve their development goals, while avoiding repeating the mistakes made in previous centuries. This can be done by understanding and taking into account the reality of African states and their political systems. These governance processes, their impacts and failures have also been analyzed by Peter Ekeh (1975). In the chapter " Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: a Theoretical Statement" (page 91- 112), he focuses on what he calls private realm and public realm, notions that are extremely different in Western and African countries. Indeed, he explains that these two realms share a common base of moral rules in Western societies, whereas in African societies colonization has led to the creation of two different public realms. This duality within civil society, and the way in which these two public realms interact with each other, must be studied and understood when undertaking development plans in African countries.

These two texts explain to the reader how the way in which European countries became involved in the development processes in African countries with colonialism, has not been an aid for the development of these countries. On the contrary, colonisation had very strong consequences on African societies such as the Guinean society, and not only the theft of natural resources that took place all over the African continent. Indeed, the colonial governments established by the Europeans also had strong negative impacts, impacts that did not disappear during the post-decolonisation period (Lockwood presents “the failure of governance reforms” (page 775, 2005)), and that can still be observed in the governance processes of the last decades. Ekeh (1975, page 96) explains that the colonial ideologies “not only backhandedly justified their penetration into Africa but also justified to their fellow countrymen their continuing actions”. This justification was made in order to hide the reality of things, the plundering of the natural resources of African countries in order to achieve the development and industrialization of the colonizing countries, and to make the world (including the Africans themselves) believe that the colonized countries were beneficiaries of these colonization processes. Concretely, this

propaganda consisted in making African peoples believe that their past was not as honourable as that of the Europeans, and that only the colonizers (whom they should thank) could bring them growth. These processes have led to great social instability in African countries, with the emergence of a new social class that Ekeh calls "African bourgeois" (Ekeh, 1975, page 93). This class of citizens integrated the ideologies spread by the colonizers, and because of this, were unable to establish good governance processes after decolonization in order to carry out the development of the countries. A more equal relationship between Western countries and Africa could have occurred during the post-decolonization period, with Western countries honestly and generously supporting Africa's development, but that was not the case. As Lockwood (2005; page 776) explains, "There is macroeconomic evidence that aid does, in fact, bring growth regardless of policies"; aid has been useful in recent decades and has brought some growth, but not as much as expected, for two main reasons: governance and conditionalities. In fact, some uncoordinated and arbitrary NGO projects have failed to create strong states with real infrastructure, public services and political will.

Western aid compensated for the lack of government structures and investment in infrastructure, but this kind of approach cannot create a strong and independent developed state. Moreover, Westerners wanted to have some control over macroeconomic policy in Africa and decided to make their aid conditional. Conditionality represents a process of neo-colonialism in which Western countries do not want to support Africa's development, but rather to control it. In reality, this aid was not altruistic, because in the context of the Cold War, Western countries had to maintain close contacts with African old colonies in order to constitute the strongest ideological bloc. In the post-Cold War context, globalization seemed more important than the maintenance of dominance over Africa, as Edoho (2011; p. 110) writes: “the Western disengagement from Africa is a post-cold war phenomenon, compounded by globalization”. The main consequence of these selfish processes is that Western countries abandoned African countries at the end of the Cold war, as these links were not essential anymore.

The Republic of Guinea suffered from the impacts of this colonization (Guinea was a French colony between 1891 and 1958) and the impacts can already be seen nowadays: the remaining transportation infrastructure constructed during the colonization phase are still here, and the political instability that happens in the country is related to the difficulty of creating a political systems dealing with the consequences of the colonization on the society (the two public realms described by Ekeh). This instability and succession of engagement and disengagement of western countries complicate the elaboration of long-term policies in terms of infrastructure development. 3.3 The implication of China in the development of African countries Western countries are not the only option to help development processes in Guinea, because nowadays there is a strong relationship between China and African countries such as Guinea, as we can see in “Globalization and Marginalization of Africa: Contextualization of China-Africa Relations” (pages 103- 124) written by Edoho in 2011. China helps African countries being part of the

globalization but their relation is unbalanced and less productive for these countries, such as Guinea. Since decolonization, some strong and close relationships between Guinea and China appeared because of the abandonment of the Western countries explained before, but this relationship is also a threat for governance processes in Guinea.

In previous literature, the role of China in infrastructure development projects in Africa has been discussed both in positive and more critical terms. On the positive side, China supports the development of infrastructures and the globalization of African countries and is nowadays omnipresent in these countries. As Edoho (2011; p. 105:106) explains, “China will share its technical expertise, human resources, managerial capabilities, industrial production techniques, and modernization experience with Africa”. This mutual interest is based on the fact that African countries, especially Guinea, have a lot of resources, and that, as explained before, China’s investment and partnerships are useful for African countries’ development. Compared to colonial times, China does not govern in Africa but offers solutions to many problems that have badly influenced development policy, such as lack of infrastructure and public services, declining investment or lack of know-how due to brain drain. A huge increase in the number of partnerships between China and African countries, construction projects (especially in the transport sector) funded by China, foreign investment and export revenues can be observed over the last ten years.

However, at the same time, many critics can be raised about this partnership. Indeed, Edoho explains the inequality behind these partnerships. The wealth of Africa lies in natural resources and raw materials, but most of the finished products are imported in these countries (especially from China). The single-product economies developed in Africa, such as in Guinea (where the economy is based on mining especially bauxite) creates instability and vulnerability. In contrast, China has reached its stage of development and uses African countries as an important source of raw materials. In recent decades, China's natural resources have not been sufficient to cope with population growth.

Since then, a solution was needed not to stop the economic development of the country, as Edoho (2011; p. 108) explains: “Africa has the resources that China needs to sustain the momentum of its increasing modernization and rapid industrialization”. In addition to using its natural resources for its own development, Chinese government brings their own labour forces to Africa, and this level of migration does not create jobs nor improve technical knowledge and education. This recent implication of China is seen by the authors as an unbalanced relationship that can be seen as a type of colonization. However, even if China has a major financial influence on the transport sector of Guinea, the Chinese government does not govern China and governance processes must (and can) include this relationship and deal with it in order to create a more equal partnership.

3.4 Governance processes and the failure of governance processes in Guinea, and alternative processes to face them 3.4.1 Governance processes Governance is a complicated notion, defined differently by authors in the literature. Here, we will focus on the definition given by Jan Kooiman, "Governance of and in modern societies is a mix of all kinds of governing efforts by all manner of social- political actors, public as well as private; occurring between them at different levels, in different governance modes and orders" (Kooiman, 2003, page 3). The multiplicity of actors involved in the development of the transport sector in Guinea, the complicated relations established between them, and the failure to plan the development of the transport network over the last few decades lead us to consider this issue of governance as essential. Indeed, the previous paragraphs show that these relations between the actors evolve over time (particularly with Western countries and China today), and that the actors can be very different from each other, with different goals and means. This idea is also developed by Kooiman: "Governing issues generally are not just public or private, they are frequently shared, and governing activity at all levels (from local to supra-national) is becoming diffused over various societal actors whose relationships with each others are constantly changing'" (Kooiman, 2003, page 3). The governance processes developed in the transport sector in Guinea are specific and unique, and the results observed are not able to meet the development expectations of the country and its citizens.

Thus, "there is a need to restructure governing responsibilities, tasks and activities, based upon differentiation and integration of various concerns and the agents representing them" (Kooiman, 2003, page 4), and thus a need to study these particular governance processes. 3.4.2 The failure governance processes in Guinea As it was explained before, the transport sector is very important for the economic and social development of Guinea. The governance processes in this sector are very complicated due to the historical implication of western countries, and the recent implication of China. These implications were supposed to foster the economic development of Guinea, but Diallo explains that “after fifty years of independence and notwithstanding several decades of official development assistance programs, Guinea’s economic performance remains mixed and far from satisfactory” (Diallo, 2007, page 211). Indeed, the debt of the country (that represented US$ 3,261.2 million in 2004 according to him) is the main problem of this economic development. Diallo explains that contracting a debt like that one is supposed to boost the economy of the country with suitable investment that will allow the country to cover its debt, but that it is not what happened in Guinea. As she says, “’the indebtedness phenomenon is a natural consequence of economic activities, due to the fact that some countries or institutions have financial surpluses and others financing needs” (Diallo, 2007, page 212), it represents the involvement of western countries and China in the development of transport infrastructure in Guinea.

However, Diallo observes that this debt did not had a positive effect on the GDP growths of the country, and concludes that “investment and human capital development are the engines of growth, while the country does not benefit much from its opening up to trade and the depreciation of its currency” (Diallo, 2007, page 234).

She suggests to the government to adopt strong and coherent policies and institutional frameworks to improve the collaboration with the international community. 3.4.3 Alternative planning processes based on the involvement of citizens Developing the institutional framework is a first way to improve these collaborations, but these governance processes can be changed more profoundly to lower their negative impacts. Increasing the access of citizens to these governance processes, through collaborative planning processes, is a way to improve these processes.

The evaluation of collaborative planning processes to assess the quality of these democracy processes is discussed by Agger and Löfgren (2008). Even if these processes are more and more famous and developed, they have to be correctly implemented to ensure their success. They define five criteria: “public access to political influence, public deliberation, development of adaptiveness, accountability and finally, the development of political identities and capabilities” (Agger and Löfgren, 2008, page 147) that must be assessed to evaluate the success of collaborative planning processes.

The idea of distributing access to planning more fairly is very important: being allowed to take part in decision-making (with a wide range of actors, not just the simple ones), is not everything, people also need the material power to do so. Information is also an important matter, for all citizens who will be affected by the decisions of the actors. Agger and Löfgren raise the question of representation, especially the fact that it is often the richest people who have the time, education and money to participate in politics and decision-making. To solve the problems of governance processes and their adequacy with citizens’ need, collaborative planning processes cannot be a solution if they follow the inequalities and minorities already existing in the society. Strong interactions between the different stakeholders must be implemented to have good collaborative planning processes.

Gerry Stoker in “Governance as theory: five propositions” (1998) also conjures up this idea of interactions and networks. His fourth proposal, entitled "autonomous self-governing networks of actors” (Stoker, 1998, page 23) states that policies can be more efficient if we do not have state authority but rather these networks. However, there is a lack of studies and solutions on resources management, especially in poor regions such as Guinea, and on the importance and role of non- state actors.

Andreas Faludi (2012) also examined these vertical interactions and explained that in the 1980s, multi-level territorial governance had emerged in EU governance theories, but that this point of view raised three different issues. Firstly, the redundancy of this expression: it was important to note that although multi-level governance was not qualified as "territorial", it did at some point include a reflection on territories. Secondly, Faludi explains the ambiguity of multilevel governance. In

fact, EU policies use the words "multi-level governance" when talking about vertical administrative relations, whereas "governance" is intended to cover all types of collective action aimed at different types of actors.

This is a history of EU debates on the structure and levels of the organisation, including the question of the nature of state membership: are all Member States equal ("state-centred perspective"), or is it the creation of a superior entity ("supranational perspective") (Faludi, 2012, page 201)? The authors analyse the concept of multi-level governance to describe how this organization works: while States are important, different actors at different levels are responsible for decision-making, which must be linked to each other and to the executive branch of the State. The important thing is to establish networks, not to work side by side but together, and to move from multi-level polity to multi-level governance. This shift from government to governance is also described by Cars et al. in Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux (2002), and is directly related to the situation in Guinea: many stakeholders different from the state are involved in the decision making processes in the transport infrastructure projects, and multi- level governance can be seen as a solution. 3.4.4 Justice in planning and governance processes Planning processes can create a lot of conflicts, especially regarding power issues and ethical considerations, and collaborative processes are not always the perfect solution regarding governance processes. Different articles show the different authors’ understanding of these perspectives.

Campbell, in "Just Planning: The Art of Situated Ethical Judgment" (2006) examines the notions of good, values, justice and ethics in the context of planning. She explains that planning processes have not responded to the differences within and between companies: not all situations are the same and have their own complexity; this requires the theorization of complicated planning processes. Over the past decades, these different points of view have been taken into account by the various planners (who, at least, have tried to take them into account), as well as the "particularity of individual situations and contexts" (Campbell, 2006, page 93). Respect for the rights of the individual is also meaningful, but Campbell explains that these rights must be considered with a sense of collectivity: the collective and the individual will be strongly related and develop synergies. The rights of the individual should not be a threat to the well-being of the community. This complex relationship between individual and collective rights can lead to planning conflicts, and intelligent planning processes must resolve these conflicts.

This notion of collectivity is also developed by Innes and Booher (2004), who explain how collaborative planning processes can fail, one of the reasons being the “conflict between the individual and collective interest” (Innes and Booher, 2004, page 419), but also the necessity to everyone to have access to public participation. They denounce the real situation of public participation in the US, which is that “many voices are never heard” (Innes and Booher, 2004, page 419).

Vanessa Watson (2003), in studying the case of Crossroads districts in Cape Town, South Africa, mentions these same problems. This case study deals with the story of a group of women (the Women's Power Group) who was in conflict with authorities and decision makers. In order to create a new district in the city, they wanted to destroy their informal settlements. Watson explains how complicated such a situation can be. She describes how urban planners try to understand this

multiculturalism and diversity, but are far from understanding this complexity. If they want to advance further on this issue, they should study less of the theoretical approach and “return to the concrete, to the empirical and to case research" (Watson, 2003, page 396). This conflict described by Watson shows the specificity and incongruity of the motivations of the different actors involved in this struggle. Indeed, the women of this group are in conflict with the authorities because the latter are composed of men who have not undergone circumcision. They are therefore not seen as real men by the local populations, according to their traditions.

This argument is not the only reason for the struggle between these two groups, which is much more complex, but this example is enough to show the complexity and specificity of the expectations and claims of the populations. Campbell explains that in Africa this situation is not unique, as traditional habits have to rub shoulders with Western institutions inherited from colonization. Flyvbjerg, in "Bringing Power to Planning Research: One Researcher's Praxis Story" (2002), explains that the issue of power is central to all these planning processes. He recounts his experience as a member of the Regional Planning Authority, who had no power because his recommendations and the findings of his studies were not taken into account by those who made the final decisions. Thus, collaboration is not enough if collaboration remains consultative: the notion of power is essential. Haugaard (2003) also reflects on the importance of power, and defines seven different forms of power which can be used to deal with problems such as those described by Flyvbjerg.

Alternative governance processes in the transport sector of Guinea must be studied and assessed with this idea of power and justice in mind, to find appropriate ways of planning (specific to the situation of Guinea) to improve the social and economic development of the country.

Based on the findings from the literature review, this study aims to assess how current governance processes in transport projects in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. Behind that can be enumerated four research questions that will be answered in the Chapter 6: Findings and analyzes:

1. How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?

2. Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?

3. How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?

4. What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?

4 METHODOLOGY

The methodology of this research project is based on:

§ A comparative case study approach with two case studies: the Conakry Express and the Conakry-Kindia line. § Two methods: semi-structured interviews to collect primary data and a desk- based study to collect secondary data. 4.1 A comparative case study approach This research project followed a comparative case study approach. Two specific case studies of transport projects in Guinea were conducted and involved description, assessment and comparison in order to have realistic and applied results on the question of these governance processes. The opportunities and threats generated by these two case studies are highlighted and analyzed in chapter 5 (case studies) and integrated in the results described in chapter 6. The number of two was chosen in order to have a plurality of case studies and neither a single one, neither too many case studies that would be simple descriptions and not analyzes. These two case studies involve different subsectors of the transport sector (transportation at a city scale and at the country scale), different actors (China and the private sector) and different issues representative of the transport sector:

§ 1st case study: the Conakry Express, the public transport line between Kagbelen and Kaloum in Conakry. This line is an urban public transport line, the only public transport that exists in the suburbs of Conakry. The line was put into operation in 2010 and the project was financed by the CIF (China Investment Fund). The usage issues (waste on the rails, manifestations, sanitary issues) and the conflicts with the financing organization, the CIF, led to many traffic interruptions. § 2nd case study: the Conakry-Kindia line (105 km), a train line used by SBK (Kindia Bauxite Company) since its creation. This mining company developed a train line for the transportation of goods, but people cannot use this line for their own transportation needs.

4.2 Two methods to collect primary and secondary data 4.2.1 Desk based study The first method of this research project to collect data is a desk-based study: newspaper, websites and policy documents were a tool in order to obtain a documented analysis of the actual state of the governance processes in transport projects in Guinea, and the impacts of these processes.

4.2.1.1 Sectorial documents produced by the government A first step to study the governance processes in the transport sector of Guinea, and their consequences on the development of the country, is to fully understand the state of the transportation sector and the actors involved in its development. To study and analyze the transport sector in Guinea, this research project used the Sectorial Political Letter from 2019 (mentioned in the next chapters as SPL, 2019). This letter was written and published by the Guinean State, and is a way to have an actualized description of the transport sector and of the four subsectors (road, rail, maritime, airline). The multimodality between these subsectors is also described in this letter.

Then, another sectorial document that is used in this thesis is the National Transport Plan that was realized in 2002 by a group of transport experts for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Public Works of Guinea (mentioned in the next chapters as NTP, 2002). A National Transport Plan is something very specific in planning and this plan includes a description of the situation of the transport sector in 2002 and a list of projects that were planned in 2002 and were supposed to be implemented in the last 18 years. This list of projects is prioritized, and for each project the cost and actors responsible for the project are described.

Studying these two documents was a way to see what is the actual situation of the transport sector in Guinea, how it has evolved in 17 years (between 2002 and 2019), and who were the actors involved in the implementation (or non- implementation) of these transport project.

4.2.1.2 Newspapers This desk-based study also used newspapers (on paper or online), which are the first way to get recent information about the current projects and problems of the transport sector in Guinea. Before searchers decide to look into these questions, journalists are the first witnesses of the situation in the country, and give most of the time the opinions and feelings of the citizens and stakeholders. They have to be used carefully in term of political involvement: an article in a newspaper is not a scientific article based on neutral principles. The origins and political actions and involvements of the different articles were considered in the analysis. Most of these articles were from Guinean or African on-line newspapers, and used to fully understand and analyze the two case studies. It was indeed a way to know some problems or solutions that happen in Guinea and are enough important to be mentioned in the local newspapers. Some keywords related to these case studies were used, especially “Conakry Express”, “Kindia line”, “SBK”. The researches were done in French, as it is the language commonly used in Guinean newspapers.

In particular, the one-line newspapers listed below were used, and short articles describing different steps of transport projects or local opinion on these projects were assessed:

§ Guineelibre, GuineeNews and GuineTime that published different articles about the Conakry Express between 2010 and 2020, § Kankan Radio that published articles regarding the implication of mining companies in local communities.

4.2.1.3 Websites Finally, this desk-based study used websites of official and international organizations such as the United Nation database where actualized economic and social indicators can be found about Guinea that are relevant to this topic but also about the other developing countries in West Africa, in order to compare these indicators and analyze them. Indicators were compared (evolution during the last years, comparison with the neighboring countries, etc) and used to answer to the research questions.

These websites’ list included (non-exhaustive list): § United Nations data base about Guinea and ECOWAS countries; § World Bank, Systematic Country Diagnostic of the Republic of Guinea from 2018 (entitled “Overcoming Growth Stagnation To Reduce Poverty”); § Guinea Mining Symposium website; § Ministry of Mines and Geology website. 4.2.2 Semi-structured interviews Then, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted during this research project to collect primary data. The seven persons interviewed can be gathered into two stakeholders’ groups: experts and users. These two groups provide different perspectives on the research questions:

§ Regarding question n°1 (Q1: How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?), a user of the transport sector is a witness of the physical changes that occur on the roads of the country, but also the price, the safety, etc. An expert will be more aware of the institutional, economic or political changes that happened, and will be able to analyze them. § Regarding question n°2 (Q2: Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?), these two categories represent different actors of this transport sector, and have, at their different levels, different views of these processes. § Regarding question n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?), the development goals are not the same and will be perceived differently by a citizen who uses the transport sector on a daily base, or by an expert of the sector who takes an economical action in its development. § Regarding question n°4 (Q4: What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?), the opportunities are not the same for the user and for the experts, as they do not have the same role in the development of the sector. They also do not have the same wills, and it is interesting to have the two groups in these interviews.

Some interviews were direct discussions that were audio recorded, others were just discussions by phone (with people in Guinea for example), summarizes of these interviews can be found in Annexes. Three interviews were recorded and summarized (not full transcriptions). These different persons have also experiences from different areas of Guinea, their place of living and experiences are indicated on the map below:

Figure 3: Interviews' map (Google maps)

Figure 4: Structure of the interviews

4.2.2.1 The user group The user group is made up of different people with different characteristics, in order to cover a wide range of users. There are thus: § Guinean and non-Guinean citizens, in order to see the differences in point of view between someone who was born in Guinea, who is a citizen and therefore must participate in the life of his country, and someone who only uses the transport sector. § Non-Guineans who have lived in Guinea for a long period of time (several years), and who therefore have a deep knowledge and experience of the transport sector, while at the same time having an outside perspective (non- citizen who has lived in other countries) that allows them to compare their experiences with other countries they have lived in. § Non-Guineans who came to Guinea over a short period of time and used the transport sector as an occasional user.

Two Guinean citizens: David and Madeleine David and Madeleine are brother and sister. They are born in in a town called Labé, in Fouta-Djalon. David lived there until 2005 and then left Guinea to study. Madeleine still lives in Guinea, but now in Conakry where she works. They know the transport sector of Guinea since they were young, as users, and have seen in the last decades the evolution of the sector in term of new projects, maintenance, alternative solutions, but also the different actors involved.

These respondents were recruited through personal contacts, first David then Madeleine as the vision of someone who still lives in Guinea is essential. Discussions were conducted with both by e-mail and phone, with notes to capture the key elements that they gave, and summaries (in Annexes). David’s interview was recorded. Two French long-term inhabitants of Guinea: Alice and Mathieu

Alice and Mathieu are French and lived respectively 2 years in Guinea, Alice in Nzerecoré in Southeast Guinea between 2017 and 2019, and Mathieu in Conakry between 2011 and 2013. They used different kind of transportation modes during their life in Guinea. They also lived in other developing countries (Senegal for example), and bring to this research project a comparative glance to this transport sector.

Alice was recruited through personal contact. She lives nowadays in Dakar so the interview was conducted by phone, recorded, and lasted around one hour. Mathieu was recruited through professional contact; the interview was a physical recorded interview (during one hour). The record was listened several times after the interview to keep the key elements and summarize it.

A French short-term visitor of Guinea: Ines A French woman, Ines, who came to Guinea for work and had to travel a lot in the country during the two weeks that she spent there, was interviewed. She is a co- worker with experience in Guinea. The interview was a physical interview during half an hour and the key elements were transcribed in the appendices.

4.2.2.2 The experts’ group

A transport economist: Roberto Roberto is an Italian expert specialized in transport projects and strategies development in developing countries, especially African countries. For example, he worked on the Railway National Transport Plan in Ghana, the Rural National Transport Strategy in Benin, the action plan of the Transport Program in Haiti, and the National Transport Plan of Jordan as a Team Leader. He has in-depth knowledge of the governance processes of the transport sector in developing countries, and has interacted and cooperated with all the different actors and stakeholders of transport projects. He experienced the issues raised by these processes and his expertise is an asset to this research project. Roberto is a co-worker whose work is directly relevant to this research project: he was working on a tender that consisted in updating the National Transport Plan of Guinea, and he was the Team Leader. He advised on the questions of prioritizing projects and cooperating with many different international actors. Many phone calls were conducted between 10/11/2019 and 24/11/2019, for a total of 3 hours of discussion.

A Guinean driver, Barry Barry lives in Nzérékoré as Alice, and drives a “minibus”, one of the only informal public transport modes. He gives to this research project his experience of the roads in the country as a driver, and as a stakeholder of this sector: his job and way of living is directly related to the issues raised by this research project.

Barry was recruited through snowball sampling, through Alice who knows him. The interview was conducted by phone and lasted around half an hour. It was quiet difficult to develop a lot of subjects (would have been very interested as he is the only one with this profile in this group) because he speaks Peul (one of the languages used in Guinea) but did not speak French very well. A translator was found but then it was difficult to reach him (the network is not very good and the communications are expensive for him). The table below summarizes the different characteristics of these interviews:

Place of Conduction Citizenship Names Link experience of interview in Guinea By phone, Introduced 15/02/2020, Labé, in David by a friend around half an Fouta-Djalon Guinean hour, recorded Labé, in Introduced By phone, Madeleine Fouta-Djalon by David 03/03/2020 and Conakry By phone, Introduced 10/02/2020, Alice Nzérékoré by a friend around one Users hour, recorded Physical interview, Conakry and Met at Non- Mathieu 27/01/2020, Lower work Guinean around one Guinea hour, recorded Physical interview, Met at Conakry and Inès 03/03/2020, work Mamou around half an hour By phone, Introduced 20/02/2020, Nzérékoré Guinean Barry by Alice around half an and Conakry hour Many phone calls between Actors 10/11/2019 Experiences Non- Met at and in many Roberto Guinean work 24/11/2019 (a African total of 3 or 4 countries hours of discussions) Figure 5: The interviews - Summary 4.3 Reliability of the methodology The reliability of the applied methodology, and therefore the reliability of this research project, was considered.

First of all, some of the authors studied in the literature review are not recent; this may lead to false conclusions because of outdated studies. Indeed, Ekeh's work dates back to 1975. However, he shows a situation observed in his time that stems from the decolonization processes, a process from which the present situation also stems. Moreover, his analyse of colonization processes is useful and relevant to compare them with the processes developed by China in African countries. His analysis is therefore relevant to this research project, and has been studied with the necessary temporal hindsight. Furthermore, no interviews were conducted with representatives of the Guinean government or public institutions. This is due to the conflict of interest that this would have created between the researcher (working on tenders launched by the Guinean government), and the potential lack of objectivity that a politician can present. However, interviewing specialists in the transport sector in developing countries (such as Roberto), provides the perspective of someone who knows the workings of the system but is politically independent and has an analytical perspective. The absence of government representatives is therefore filled by this specialist.

The choice of interviews was made to focus mainly on users of the system, firstly to get an experienced and recent view of the state of the transport sector in Guinea and its weaknesses, and secondly to understand the expectations of users and their involvement in the governance processes.

5 CASES STUDIES

5.1 Case study n°1: the Conakry Express As explained in the previous chapter, the Conakry Express is the public transport line between Kagbelen and Kaloum. This 30 km section is used by SNCFG (National Railway Company of Guinea) for public transport in the suburbs of Conakry with the Conakry Express. It was put into operation in 2010 and connects Kagbélen to Kaloum.

The only possibility to avoid Conakry traffic jams, it reached 1.6 million passengers per year in 2012, before a sharp decrease in activity and temporary stops. Significant problems with track congestion due to waste, manifestations linked to socio-political problems, Ebola epidemics and the damage caused by the derailment of an SBK train have caused its activity to drop to 362,165 people in 2018 (SPL, 2019).

Figure 6: The Conakry Express (ConakryInfos, 2017)

Figure 7: The Conakry Express (Google maps)

The 2002 NTP, in Volume 7 "Diagnostics and Prospects of Public Rail Transport," recommended the "creation of a surface metro for the transport of people" (NTP, 2002, Vol. 7, page 30) as a solution to Conakry's congestion problems. Funding for this project was the most difficult point of this proposal: if he decided to maintain reasonable costs for users, the Guinean State could not depreciate the cost of the project. In the absence of funding, this project was not categorized as a priority, and was to be reviewed over the next ten years. The financial issue was resolved in 2010 thanks to the involvement of China and the CIF.

An article from the online newspaper “Guineelibre”, entitled “Arrival of "Conakry Express" locomotives and wagons, the fruit of cooperation with China” from June 20th 2010 explains that the cooperation between China, the Guinean government and the mining companies that own the railways led to the creation of this public transport line. With one train every morning and every evening, it is a very cheap way to avoid the congestion of the city, and the article explains that it will change the life of Conakry’s inhabitants.

However, technical problems and repeated service interruptions point to the flaws in this line and the partnership established for the project. For example, an article from GuineTime from 2013, entitled “Transport: the train "Conakry Express" suspends its activities” explains that Chinese experts observed technical problems on the railways and stopped the traffic for maintenance. The SPL from 2019 explains that these technical problems happened very often in the last decade, and that the train stopped many times during a few months. Moreover, due to Ebola epidemic, sanitary issues occur with this train that transports a lot of passengers every day, and the train had to be stopped during the epidemic to limit the contamination.

A final problem that complicated the operation of the train is the use of the rails by the citizens. Indeed, the latter deteriorated the rails by regularly throwing their garbage in them. An article from GuineeNews, entitled “Urban transport: due to unsanitary conditions, the Conakry Express train is stopped” and dated from

February 2020, explains that "Garbage dump on the right of way and on the railway is the main cause of the stop of the Conakry Express train”. The question of why do people throw their garbage on the railway can be raised: do they know that it is the reason for the stop of the train circulation? Do they have other proper places to put their garbage? The issues raised by the non-implication of citizens can perfectly be seen here: there actions and deteriorations cause a lot of interruptions, would it be the same if they had been included in the decision-making and implementation processes of this project? Finally, this train was stopped between October 2019 and January 2020: the train was financed by the CIF (China Investment Fund), which is now seeking reimbursement from Guinea, and negotiations are underway with the government.

This case study shows different issues: the role of the citizens and their implication in the non-functioning of this train, the importance of this only public way of transportation in Conakry, and the issues raised by the involvement of the CIF (China Investment Fund) that ask for reimbursement now. 5.2 Case study n°2: the Conakry-Kindia line The Conakry – Kindia line (105 km) is a train line that links the port of Conakry to the mining exploitations in Kindia. This line is ruled by the SBK, the Bauxites Society of Kindia, and is only used for the transportation of goods of this mining company. Passengers cannot use it. As the Country Diagnostic from the World Bank (2018) explains, “Guinea’s railway infrastructure is inadequate and below the levels of its neighbors” (page 49), a way to improve railway infrastructure would be to use the ones developed by the mining companies.

Moreover, this diagnostic raises the specific importance of the Conakry-Kindia line: ‘in the critical transport corridors, through which processed foods are exported, especially the Kindia-Conakry axis, roads are in poor condition and the logistics are costly” (page 46). A use of this train line for the transport of goods and people could have major impacts on the development of Guinea.

Figure 8: Kindia Station (Kankan Radio, 2019)

Figure 9: Conakry-Kindia line (Google maps)

The NTP from 2002 only mentioned this line when it described the state of the train network but did not have any plan for this line as it is governed by the mining companies. However, the SPL from 2019 explains that with the support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Transport prepared a Master Plan for the development of auxiliary transport infrastructure for mining, which covers existing railway lines and port terminals, to be fitted out or created to allow the removal of minerals from operations in progress and the various projects envisaged over a 20-year horizon. The idea is to establish cooperation between the different mining companies in order to finance, build and operate these infrastructures jointly. The general objective for rail transport is to revitalize and modernize interurban and urban rail transport, by:

§ the creation of growth corridors centered on the renovated railway lines, § the modernization of the institutional environment to encourage the participation of the private sector in the renovation, development and operation of rail transport, § the revival of passenger and general freight transport on all existing and new lines, § pooling of existing and new lines, interurban and urban, to allow their use by several operators.

The differences between the political wills of 2002 and 2019 show us that there is nowadays a will to implicate more the private sector (especially the mining companies) in the development of transport infrastructure. Institutional frameworks must be developed to regulate this cooperation.

Moreover, an article from the online newspaper Kankan Radio, entitled “Impact of mining companies on the Mambia / Kindia Community: The 1st Vice Mayor requests the CBK to multiply the support and it requires the training of youth”, from October 2019, is an interview of Morlaye Morlisse Bangoura, the Vice Mayor of Mambia, a rural community in Kindia district. Mr. Bangoura explains that the mining society, with the new Mining Code, has to pay taxes to the rural community to help their development. They have to help for the development, and are now focusing on school and health centres construction. However, the Vice Mayor would like to have more investment in this rural development from these private companies.

This article shows that this political will of more implication from the private companies is happening with the same social will. This case study shows the importance of mining companies in term of financing infrastructure, but the limits of these infrastructures that cannot be used by citizens and are not a support to the development of the country but only the development of these private companies. However, the changes in the mentality (on a social and political level) can change this relation and make the private mining companies real actors of the economic and social development of the country. To reach that goal, proper institutional and legal frameworks must be implemented (as it has started with the mining code).

6 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

The literature review gives to this research project a clear state of the actual research regarding governance processes in the transport sector in Guinea, and their impacts on the development of the country. Then the methodology of this project, based on a comparative case study approach and two methods (desk- based study and interviews) to collect data lead to many different results that will be discussed in this chapter. These findings can be gathered in five different results that answer to the four research questions, and are related to the four themes developed in the literature review:

§ Result n°1: The development of transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy § Result n°2: Many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea, and they face different issues § Result n°3: International actors create opportunities and threats for the country in terms of social and economic development § Result n°4: International actors, private actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects § Result n°5: Studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens

These five themes will be described and analysed in this chapter.

The table below describes the links between these results, the research questions and the themes developed in the literature review.

Literature Review Results Research Questions Themes

R1 A: The importance of the Q1 and Q3 transport sector in the R2 development of Guinea Q1 and Q3

B: The historical background of the R3 involvement of western Q2 countries

C: The implication of

China

B: The historical background of the involvement of western R4 countries Q2

C: The implication of China

D: Governance and the failure of governance R5 processes in Guinea, and Q3 and Q4 alternative processes to face them

Figure 10: Links between Results, Literature Review Themes and Research Questions 6.1 Result n°1: The development of the transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy The development of the Republic of Guinea today faces two main challenges. First, a major social issue lies in the fact that the population is very young, and growing rapidly (people under fourteen years old accounted for 42% of the population in 2016 according to the UN, and the country has a population growth of 2.6% per year according to the World Bank, 2017). This demographic issue has very high consequences on the infrastructure capacity, especially in the transport sector. Then, the second main challenge is an economic issue that lies in the fact that the Guinean economy is based almost exclusively on the mining sector and agriculture.

Both sectors are highly dependent on the transport sector. Indeed, first involves high tonnages and aims to consolidate its presence on the international market, which implies the transit of large volumes and loads over long distances. Agriculture, on the other side, is based on the transport sector, first for the supply of the whole country, and secondly for its export activities. Thus, these two economic sectors and their importance to the country's economy make the transport sector a key factor in the country's sustainable development. 6.1.1 The mining sector and the importance of the transport sector Guinea's rich mining potential accounts for 83% of the country's export earnings and 20% of GDP respectively (Ministry of Mines and Geology, 2018). The country has significant reserves of bauxite, iron, gold and diamonds, as well as resources in cobalt, copper, heavy mineral sands, lead and limestone. In 2017, bauxite production increased by almost 65% compared to 2016 production (31 Mt to nearly 52 Mt), making Guinea the world's third largest producer and the largest supplier to the Chinese market since 2016 (Ministry of Mines and Geology, 2018). With forward-looking studies confirming that demand for bauxite will be significantly higher than supply in 2025 (Ministry of Mines and Geology, 2018), Guinea has the opportunity to strengthen its place in the global economy.

Nevertheless, the mining sector still faces many challenges and still needs to develop responsibly and sustainably to increase its direct contribution to the national economy and become the "catalyst for the structural transformation of Guinean economy" (Ministry of Mines and Geology, 2018).

Figure 11: Bauxite and gold deposits in Guinea (Guinea Mining Symposium, 2018)

Infrastructure related to mining activities, including transportation infrastructure, is highly strategic (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). The quality of the latter determines the smooth running of extractive activities such as the evacuation or transport of ore, which are essential for the economic profitability of operations.

The national strategy adopted (NTP, 2002 and SPL, 2019) thus envisages three main areas of development of mining transport infrastructure:

§ The northwest (railway projects and ports: Dian-Dian, AM Ltd and Koumba Iron Ore); § The centre of the country (Transguinean Tracé Nord); § The south of the country (Transguinean Tracé Sud, a line entirely intended for the iron transport of the Simandou project near Beyla in forest Guinea, to the sea at the deep-water port of Benti, possibly passing through Faranah where the creation of a dry port would allow facilitate exports to Mali).

Thus, the importance of the transport sector for the development of mining activity, and the place of mining in the Guinean economy, make the mining sector stakeholders full actors in the transport sector. As Diallo explains about Guinea economy, “foreign exchange is derived essentially from the export of minerals” (Diallo, 2009, page 231). Thanks to the country's opening to foreign investors over the past decade, the growth rate of the transport sector has increased (5% in 2009, and 5.2% on average in 2012-14 (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018)). However, the mining sector is highly dependent on the multimodal nature of the sector, and its logistics, and Guinea's transport sector is currently not performing well enough in this regard.

Indeed, the World Bank experts explain in a report about the situation of Guinea: “In 2016, Guinea’s overall score for the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) was low. Guinea’s score was 2.36, and the country was ranked 129 out of 160 countries.” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 93). In terms of logistic

performance, the situation is getting worse compared to 2014, when it was ranked 122nd according to the World Bank. 6.1.2 The agricultural sector and the importance of the transport sector The agricultural sector also plays a large role in the country's economy, notably as the employer and source of income for a large part of the population. The World Bank explains that “agriculture is one of the main drivers of economic growth and employment” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 7). This sector is mainly based on rice, cassava, millet, fonio, peanuts, as well as palm oil and fruits (lemon, bananas, mango, pineapple, plantains, etc.). Transportation is also essential for Guinea's agriculture sector: in fact, each region of the country produces certain products in large quantities, which requires the transit of all goods after production. This transit is more focused on transport within the country, although international exports are increasing. As it is raised in the Country Diagnostic realized by the World Bank, “Guinea’s agribusiness is a prominent example of an industry that has faced the twin challenges of finance and transport” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 45).

Thus, the development of transport infrastructure is of strategic interest to promote trade and increase their quality, and to facilitate and support the economic and social development of the country.

As it is explained before, the economic development of the Republic of Guinea is based on mines and agriculture, both needing a good transport sector. This result is directly related to the studies of Fulmer (who explains that developing countries are the one in which infrastructure development is the most essential), and the simulation realized by Canning and Fay (their quantification of the impact of transport on economic growth show that in developing countries this impact is very high). Most of the results developed in the literature review concern developing countries and African countries, but the study realized by Mei Lan et al. (2016) shows that this strong link between infrastructure and economic development exists in Guinea.

This transport sector is divided into several sub-sectors: the road sector, the railway sector, the maritime and river sector and the airline sector. In addition to these four sub-sectors, there are problems of intermodality and logistics, with the aim of optimizing trade by streamlining the transition from one mode of transport to another (SPL, 2019). Thus, a coherent long-term strategy for the transport sector is needed for the good economic and social development of the Republic of Guinea. The governance processes between the numerous actors must be well and fairly coordinated in order to develop the needed long-term strategies.

6.2 Result n°2: Many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea, and they face different issues 6.2.1 The numerous local actors involved in the transport sector of Guinea There are many institutional actors involved in the transport sector in the Republic of Guinea. Their responsibilities are not always well defined, and the lack of a general means prevents the organization of coordinated actions. Thus, the coordination of these different actors, and the delineation between their responsibilities in future projects will be issues of the development of master plans and investment plans. The sectorial documents edited by the government of Guinea (NTP, 2002 and SPL, 2019) describe the several administrations are involved in the transport sector in Guinea, including the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture for Livestock and Forestry (MAEF) and the Ministry of the City and Land Development (formerly the Ministry of Urbanism, Housing and Construction). It is also worth noting the intervention, which is generally uncoordinated, by other institutional actors such as governorates and municipalities. Other players are added to these institutional players, notably the private sector with mining companies.

This multiplicity of actors creates situations of overlapping responsibilities and competences, and makes it absolutely necessary and essential to establish common policies between these actors (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018).

For example, the sectorial documents (NTP, 2002 and SPL, 2019) explain that Ministry of Public Works must maintain regional roads and primary roads (through the National Directorate of Urban Tracks (DNVU) and the National Directorate of Road Maintenance (DNER)), while secondary and tertiary networks are the responsibility of local authorities. Similarly, the National Directorate of Prefectural and Community Roads (DNRPC) is located within the Ministry of Public Works, while the National Directorate of Land Transport belongs to the Ministry of Transport. As prefectural roads are part of land transportation, there are overlapping responsibilities that can jeopardize long-term policy development.

During his interview, Roberto explained that within the rail, maritime and air subsectors, many of the players mentioned above are responsible for the management and operation of transportation infrastructure, sometimes under the direction of a department, sometimes on their own (Guinea's National Railway Board (ONCFG), the National Railway Company of Guinea (SNCFG), the Autonomous Port of Conakry (PAC), SOGEAC (Conakry Airport Management and Operations Corporation), the National Aviation Directorate Civil, etc.). These different statutes and their evolution are unique situations that complicate the pattern of responsibilities within the transport sector. Thus, institutional conflicts can be identified between the responsibilities of these different structures, sources of overlap and inevitable conflicts of jurisdiction. The World Bank (2018) explains in its Country Diagnostic that “institutional fragmentation has hindered Guinea’s governmental efficiency” (World Bank,

Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 39), in the transport sector or in others. This description of the institutional framework on this sector goes along with the point raised by the World Bank’s experts: “in many areas, there is a multiplicity of agencies, with considerable overlap” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 39).

This complicated institutional framework appeared also in the different interviews, especially the ones conducted with Guinean citizens: David and Madeleine did not know really whose entity was responsible in the government for the changes that they would like to see in the transport sector. Madeleine explained that she heard, one day, the Minister of Transport talking about road infrastructure projects, but it was the only time she identified an official actor. 6.2.2 Issues faced by the numerous local actors in this transport sector The strengths and weaknesses of the various sub-sectors and the institutional context make it possible to distinguish major issues on infrastructure, administrative, institutional, and regulatory levels. In terms of infrastructure and equipment, the main problem is the inadequacy and poverty of transport infrastructure, regarding different topics. First, regarding the fleet, the sectorial documents (NTP, 2002 and SPL, 2019) and the desk-based study show the inadequacy and obsolescence of the fleet of transporting people and goods. This element is also described in the interview of Alice, who explains, “Minibuses are old too small for the amount of people and goods”. She also explains that “the road is the only way to cross the country, there is neither planes nor trains”: the absence of passenger rail lines in the country is another aspect of the inadequacy and poverty of transport infrastructure. Barry explains also that, as a professional driver, he as many technical problems, because of the oldness of the cars used but also because of the state of the roads.

The problem of the state of the road was evocate by all the users interviewed, especially the case of the non-paved roads: Ines explained that the amount of dust creates lacks of visibility, and a lot of danger. This lack of safety was also developed by Alice, Madeleine, David and Mathieu. This question of safety concerned the fleet (too many people and goods and old vehicles), the state of the roads (width of the road, the number of potholes, the unpaved road, the rainy season) and the qualities of the drivers. Mathieu and Alice explained that most of the time drivers do not have a licence, and that the traffic in the countryside is very dangerous. The case study n°2, the Conakry-Kindia line could be a way for people to travel across the country, but is reserved to the mines transport. This shows us the lack of public transport and safe ways to cross the country or transport goods.

On the administrative and institutional level, Roberto explained that some of the existing issues are linked to the complexity of the institutional framework, and the lack of structured organizations. For example, the absence of structured urban and intercity public transport companies is a problem. This administrative and institutional level covers also a financial issue that lies in the high cost of services and the inadequacy of operating budgets. Roberto explained that “some alternative solutions to find the money needed to develop infrastructure have been found in borrowing money”, but Diallo explains that it was not a good solution: “exacerbated

by poverty, this debt burden now impedes all development efforts” (Diallo, 2009, page 212). Roberto pointed the “lack in the legal and regulatory framework”, with a weak transactional culture, and suggested public private partnership for example as potential solutions to be developed. Developing the institutional and legal framework is the first advice given by Diallo in her article (2009), and the case study n°2 shows that institutional changes have real impact. Indeed, the Vice Mayor of the rural community explains (Kankan Radio, 2019) that mining companies started to involve themselves in the rural development when the mining code was created and decreed their engagements. Thus, in the next decades, the transport sector must be developed in order to meet transportation needs at the lowest cost to the national community, while ensuring an acceptable quality of service (particularly in the areas of comfort and safety), allow quality connections and facilitates exchanges between different parts of the territory (domestic integration) and support the development of other socio- economic sectors, particularly growth-promoting and high-potential sectors (rural, mining, trade).

On the economic level, the SPL from 2019 demonstrates that the transport sector must promote the country's openness to the outside world and the connection of its economy to regional and global markets, facilitates its trade and contributes to the development of its foreign trade. Roberto also raised that point, and that it is important to ensure good links with neighbouring countries in particular by facilitating the transit of goods and people to landlocked countries and by developing relations with the ECOWAS countries, facilitating and energizing sub- regional integration.

On the social level, the NTP from 2002 presents that ensuring equitable accessibility to transport services for the largest number of people, facilitating the mobility of people and people's accessibility to basic services are main issues, such as ensuring the safety of people and property, both for users and residents. However, interviews and the SPL (2019) demonstrate that this issue was not solved and is still important nowadays.

The environmental level has also to be considered, by limiting its nuisances (pollution, noise, damage to natural balances), as well as the tranquillity of the residents. Mathieu explained in his interview that the congestion in Conakry created a lot of pollution. This consequence of traffic inside the city was also evocated by David. 6.3 Result n°3: International actors create opportunities and threats for the country in terms of social and economic development The involvement of Western countries in Guinea in previous centuries has had strong social and economic impacts. These impacts are still visible today with a society whose foundations are complicated (the two publics developed by Ekeh). These impacts can also be seen in the institutional and legislative weakness of the Guinean government, as explained above.

However, the importance of the transport sector in the country's economy, and the need to make heavy financial investments to implement sustainable projects (as Fulmer explains: “primary infrastructure components are generally monopolistic in nature and require large financial commitments for their development, repair and replacement” (Fulmer, 2009, page 32)) makes this aid from Western countries or China a real opportunity. Thus, the interviews showed that almost all the transport projects that the inhabitants of Guinea have heard about, or observed, have been carried out by the Chinese government or by western companies. For example, Alice emphasizes that for her, paving the roads was the most important thing, and explains that she observed "some road paving works in Guéckédou (north of Nzérékoré), but it was a Chinese company that carried out these works". These are the only works in this direction that she observed. Similarly, Mathieu noted the urban transport problems in Conakry, and the only development project that came to mind was the interchange near the "November 8th Bridge", the work on which was carried out by a French company. This interchange is also mentioned by Madeleine. Buses put into circulation by China in order to develop public transport between the main cities of Guinea were also observed by Mathieu. The case study n°1 shows the same phenomena: the Conakry Express was financed by the Chinese Fund (GuineeLibre, 2010), and all maintenance and logistic works are done by Chinese people and firms.

However, these international engagements in transport projects create major threats for the good social and economic development of Guinea. Indeed, as Alden explains, China can be described as a new colonizer of the region (Alden, 2009) because certain colonialist ideologies can be found in these partnerships between China and African countries. Many Chinese and foreign politicians, for example, believe that China's involvement in Africa is a real gain for the continent and do not look at the consequences (“Sincerity. Equality and mutual benefit; solidarity and common development: these are the principles guiding China-Africa exchange and co-operation”, George, 2014, page 102).

Indeed, it seems difficult to talk about solidarity when China's actions have many environmental consequences in Africa, and about co-development when China brings Chinese workers instead of educating people and promoting technical knowledge partnerships, thus limiting the social and economic development of these countries. This really sounds like the definition of ideologies developed by Ekeh: “distortions or perversions of truth by intellectuals in advancing points of view that favor or benefit the interests of particular groups for which the intellectuals act as spokesmen”, (1975, page 94). As it was explained before, Guinea's biggest asset in this relationship is the fact that China does not govern Guinea, and that the implementation of proper governance processes, rules and institutional and legal framework can lead to a more egalitarian relationship.

A second major threat with these projects decided, designed, implemented and ruled by non-Guinean actors was raised by Madeleine’s interview, and is the possible inadequacy between the real expectations of people and the project developed. For example, the case study n°1 with the Conakry Express shows us that following poor use of the infrastructure (notably because of the waste thrown daily on the tracks); the train suffered numerous interruptions, and saw its passenger transport capacity decrease. However, this project is a major project for

the good urban development of Conakry, and is the only way to prevent massive traffic jams. Mathieu explained in his interview that he was working far from the center of Conakry and that his colleagues used this train daily to come to work. In addition to being very useful to citizens, the Conakry Express also helps to reduce the environmental impacts due to the weaknesses of the transport sector. Mathieu raised the fact that Conakry is extremely polluted because of cars traffic and congestion. Thus, a poor use of the infrastructure can be observed in this case. Moreover, the maintenance and management of the Conakry Express is carried out by Chinese companies, which limits the transfer of knowledge, the economic and social development of the country and the investment of citizens in the infrastructure of their city.

Finally, Roberto explained that the institutional and legal framework is important in these partnerships to ensure the feasibility of the projects and avoid financial problems after the realization of the projects: case study n°1 shows that agreements had not been made properly between the CIF and Guinean government because disagreement between them regarding the reimbursement of the aid given caused the stop of the train during months.

International actors can create real opportunities for the development of Guinean transport infrastructure, because of the financial needs that cannot be supported by the government. However, the way they implements some project creates also many threats: it is easy to fall in another type of colonialism, and it is important to involve the citizens in the decision-making, implementation and maintenance processes of these projects. Moreover, these projects need to be coordinated to have coherent planning in the transport sector. 6.4 Result n°4: International actors, private actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects The last chapters lead to the result that international actors, private actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects. They all have to take part of the elaboration of long-term master plans regarding the transport sector.

The transport economist, Roberto, explained during his interviews how it is possible to coordinate these different types of actors in an efficient way. He explained that projects have to be prioritized (by following a precise process and following many criteria), and that Investments Plans have to be elaborated with all the actors, for example by organizing round tables. 6.4.1 The prioritization process From a methodological point of view, the prioritization of projects implies a clear and concerted definition of the set of objectives, a good evaluation of the projects, a clear identification of constraints, not only financial, but also environmental, social, etc. and a final ranking ensuring that spending is concentrated on the best projects. The proposed prioritization approach was the one advised by Roberto, and can be based on carrying out cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and multi-criteria analyzes, and must be developed around 5 main stages:

§ Step 1 - Define the prioritization framework: identify the criteria and constraints by assessing their relative weight at the end of a stakeholder consultation process, taking into account the policy objectives § Step 2 - Identify potential projects to assess (this can be based on lists of projects established during the development of master plans or national transport plans) § Step 3 - Collect information and data on the use of transport axes (elaboration of origin-destination surveys, socio-economic analyzes in order to make projections of the flows of travelers and goods, and estimate the needs in terms of transport at different time horizons, thanks to multimodal transport models for example) § Step 4 - Evaluate each project according to the contribution to the identified criteria described below. § Step 5 - Prioritize the projects according to their total scores obtained during the evaluation; perform sensitivity tests to assess the degree of sensitivity of the list to the weight given to the different criteria. This will help decision makers to define the chronological order of implementation within the desired timeframe.

There are many prioritization criteria; some of them have been developed before with the social and economic issues raised by the development of the transport sector in Guinea. These criteria can be political (for example, contribution to the objectives of the latest version of the Sectorial Political Letter from July 2019), technical (improvement of the efficiency of the design and operation of the network to reduce the weaknesses raised by all the users’ group during the interviews) or environmental (reduction of atmospheric pollution, noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions that are directly related to the pollution problems in Conakry evocated by Mathieu and David).

Moreover, Roberto explained that these criteria have to consider larger problematic such as regional criteria (contribution to the cohesion and integration of Guinea in the ECOWAS region: projects belonging to strategic transport corridors, cross- border projects, etc.) and social criteria at a large scale (general effects on society, from social inclusion to transport safety).

Finally, the economic and financial criteria are very important: to face the debt problem developed by Diallo (2009), projects with economic and financial solidity must be prioritized. Roberto explained that this financial solidity can be evaluated by economic and financial performance indicators and the facilitation of financing of private sector projects and infrastructure management. After achieving this prioritization of projects, it is important to prepare Investment Plans which present the methods and strategies for (operational) execution of the activities identified in the strategic planning. 6.4.2 The development of Investment Plan Roberto explained in his interview that the Investment Plan constitutes a reference document for the financing of the identified actions. Its development must be based on the prioritization of interventions carried out previously with technical and financial assessments of the feasibility of the projects selected.

Regarding the situation of Guinea and the multiplicity of the actors involved in the development of the transport sector, it is important to know who will pay for the development and maintenance of the network. Donor credits, budget envelopes,

local revenues (generated by communities) and road fund revenues are the four most common sources of funding. The credits released by these different sources are intended for investment and operating expenses.

These resources can be mobilized locally to guarantee the sustainability of investments and, in the long term, will be based on a cost-sharing agreement between the State on the one hand and local authorities and users on the other. The example of the case study n°1 with the Conakry Express shows that clear cost-sharing agreements are needed to ensure the smooth running of the project in the future.

For the mobilization of financial resources, a partnership strategy towards donors must be initiated immediately. Coordination between donors managed by local partners is also vital for the proper functioning of funding programs. As Diallo explained, “the availability of external funds should be compatible with a policy framework to be maintained (exchange rate policy, interest rate policy, price policy, etc.)” (Diallo, 2009, page 235). 6.4.3 Improvement of the current legislative framework Investment Plans need good legislative framework to be implemented. The World Bank’s experts explain in the Country Diagnostic of Guinea that:

Guinea’s public investment system has many weaknesses. One of the major challenges for Guinea is reforming its very inefficient and corrupt public procurement system that relies on costly and inefficient single sourcing, frequently bypassing existing rules. (World Bank, Country Diagnostic, 2018 page 41)

The current legislative framework (in particular the Mining Code, and the current public-private partnership framework) must be favorable to a sharing of funding methods. Indeed, as the mining companies are private entities, their possible contribution must be subscribed to the current legislation concerning the financing of the investment of public works. The case study n°2 shows that mining companies develop transportation modes for their own needs but will need good legislative framework to be obliged to share these transport lines with the population (Kankan Radio, 2019). Roberto explained that the current legislative framework for PPPs must promote the attractiveness of the country and create partnerships that will last over time. The capacities of the public administration in terms of organization and management of PPPs as well as those of the structures in charge of promoting Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) must be strengthened, favoring the increase of private investments, in particular by the mining sector which transversely carries part of regional development. The article from Kankan Radio shows that these private companies support with success the local development of communities when they have to do it according to the law (here, the Mining Code).

In compliance with the provisions of the Mining Code and the various conventions, this can be done:

§ either by a direct contribution from the latter to the state budget for maintenance and / or investment in the transport sector. In 2012-2013, the contribution of mining companies to the state budget, excluding donations, was estimated at 24-30% (World Bank, Country Diagnostic, 2018);

§ either by direct intervention on the network, insofar as this is contained in the conventions binding these companies to the Guinean State (as it could be for the Conakry-Kindia line in the case study n°2); § either by the effective payment of fees such as the REF (Road Maintenance Fee) in their fuel purchasing or consumption operations, as Roberto explained.

Negotiations and stakeholder awareness processes will also be necessary in order to establish viable financing plans. For example, the organization of workshops as Madeleine proposed in her interview, with a round table between stakeholders (donors and other stakeholders, including the private sector) can create a space for dialogue between the financial partners involved in the transport sector to enable effective cooperation between different stakeholders. This will make possible to create a space for institutionalized dialogue, and to manage the financial resources allocated to the transport sector, whether from public or private funds, in a transparent, effective and efficient manner. Investments in the transport sector from the mining sector will therefore be taken into account in an infrastructure and transport development strategy. This will result in a better maintained network, a factor of development. 6.5 Result n°5: Studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens The need to develop financial plans and coordinated actions between the international stakeholders cannot be done without a strong citizen involvement in these governance processes. Indeed, the social and economic impact of these projects on the citizens must be evaluated and quantified during the prioritization phase; this process must involve the local people to have good prioritization lists.

The interviews show that none of the respondents who lived in Guinea or were Guinean citizens have been consulted to take part in these governance processes. Madeleine explained that she had some news of the projects implemented through the television and the Minister of Transport, but nobody asked for her opinion. However, she indicated that “I would prefer that we organize workshops in each prefecture and collect the opinion for each one in order to take into account the concerns of each other on the question”.

Moreover, as explained before, the problems of using the Conakry Express railways observed in Case Study n°1 may be linked to the fact that the inhabitants do not take ownership of these projects because they are not real actors in them. For example, the film Demain (Laurent and Dion, 2015) gives the example of the village of Kuthambakkam in India where the involvement of citizens in the development of urban infrastructures has made them responsible for them. They were main actors of all decision making and governance processes and they like them, take care of them and can be involved in maintenance. In this village, direct democracy and participation of all citizens has solved the sanitary problems faced by the village for decades by developing proper and coherent infrastructures. The case study n°2 shows also the will of the citizens to collaborate with mining companies in the development of their city, as it is explained in the article from Kankan Radio (2019). They ask for more collaboration and a higher level of partnership.

The World Bank Country Diagnostic from 2018 explains that “the public investment system has imbalances, with insufficient resources going to the regions and limited administrative support at the local level” (World Bank, Country Diagnostic, 2018, page 42). This unbalanced system shows that local administrations are not supported a lot (financially or institutionally). However local level is the main level where citizens can have a voice and take part in the governance processes. This implication of citizens can be a real asset, as it was explained in the Literature Review. The case in South Africa described by Watson, and the fact that planners cannot understand the real problems related to traditional and ethical issues shows that citizens are in the best position to solve certain problems. However, it is easy to advice a better implication of citizens, but collaborative planning processes such as the ones advised by Madeleine with workshops are hard to properly be settled. Indeed, as Agger and Löfgren explain it, people need to have the material ability (beyond the institutional possibility) to take part in these planning processes. Poor social categories, women, and minorities will find it more difficult to access this governance because they lack the material means in terms of time, money and education. This problem is very important in Guinea, where the population is very poor, has difficult access to education, and where gender equality is not present at all. The World Bank explains that ‘the Guinean educational system, which is generally weak, remains characterized by a low level of schooling, and a relatively poor education performance” (World Bank, Country Diagnostic, 2018, page 159) and that “Women continue to be dominated by men, supported by the weight of customary laws, tradition, religion and culture (World Bank, Country Diagnostic, 2018, page 64).

These inequalities in terms of education and gender complicate the instauration of collaborative planning processes and will need specific arrangements to be sure to fulfil the five criteria developed by Agger and Löfgren (2008). Taking into account these inequalities is mandatory to develop competent and efficient collaborative planning processes in Guinea.

Moreover, another threat concerning collaborative planning processes is the question of “collectivity” and “public reasoning” (Campbell, 2006, page 97). Campbell explains that it is the state's responsibility to address these inequalities and ensure free and informed access to governance processes for all. She also raises the point that the good of the community must be a primary driver for citizens if development policies are to be successful. Moreover, for citizens to implement the processes decided upon, they must be considered reasonable (she calls that “public reasoning”) by them. This notion of reasonableness implies for citizens to take a step between individual interests and collective interests.

7 CONCLUSION

If the development of the Republic of Guinea wants to be sustainable and fulfil the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015), governance processes in transport sector are a main issue.

Indeed, researchers demonstrated in the last decades that there are strong links between infrastructure development and economic development, especially in developing countries. Moreover, governance processes in the transport sector of African countries are very complicated due to the historical background of the involvement of international actors (western countries) with the colonization, their disengagement with the end of the cold war, and the new implication of China in their development. Researchers also developed alternative solutions to face governance processes failures such as the one that occurred in Guinea, mostly based on collaborative planning processes. The lack of research regarding governance processes specific to the transport sector of Guinea leads to wonder how current governance processes in transport projects in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. A comparative case study approach (with the study of the Conakry Express and the Conakry-Kindia line) and the collection of new data (through desk-based study and interview with users and actors of the sector) leads to five results that answer to these question.

These five results show that the development of transport sector is essential in Guinea’s economy, first because of direct synergies between infrastructure (especially transport) and social and economic development (especially in developing countries), then because Guinea’s economy is mostly based on mines and agriculture, both needing good transportation systems. Moreover, many local actors are involved in these sectors, and create a complicated institutional framework. This multiplicity of actors creates overlapping responsibilities and jurisdictions’ problems. These local actors have to face the numerous issues raised by the transport sector, on the quality of infrastructure, and on the administrative, institutional and regulatory levels.

Then, international actors are also involved in this transport sector, both western countries and China. They create opportunities in terms of financing infrastructure, but also threats in terms of governance and non-involvement of Guinean citizens.

As Kooiman explains, “the challenge for anyone involved in governing and governance is to make governing interactions productive” (Kooiman, 2003, page 4). The results of this research project show that a solution to create productivity in these interactions can be to coordinate these actors through prioritizing projects, developing Investment Plans and improving the current legislative framework. However, this has to be done in relation with an increase in public participation in these governance processes, through collaborative planning processes for example. In the complicated social context of Guinea (poor population, gender inequalities, low education), fair and equal collaborative planning processes are hard to implement, but can be a first step to have adequate projects and citizens’ implication in their implementation.

Another important issue related to the development of the transport sector is the time it takes for each project to be implemented. Indeed, building a highway or a metro line takes several years, and Guinea's social and economic development cannot wait until the next decade to continue. Therefore, new innovative solutions must be developed today to address the problems in the sector: “the governance perspective starts from the diversity, dynamics and complexity of the societies to be governed - and the governing themselves. These societies need order, but nothing can change without dynamics” (Kooiman, 2003, page 8).

Dynamics can be found in examples taken from other neighboring countries, for example Mozambique, which also faces similar problems in an African context. The transport sector is also poorly developed, but local solutions are beginning to develop in order to find solutions in the immediate future. For example, a French transport economist Claire H., developed “Appload” in Mozambique to face logistics problems and help people to find a way of transportation, or people to transport their goods. It is a digital service connecting logistics companies with clients wanting to ship cargo. She already has some clients, citizens (such as Madeleine who explained in her interview that she prefers to share private cars with people that she does not know instead of taking taxis or minibuses: “with these personal vehicles, there is some comfort and the travels are quite fast as these vehicles work well and are in good condition”) or companies (for the travel of goods).

8 APPENDIX: INTERVIEWS

This appendix chapter will present the interviews that were realized during this research project. Some interviews were direct discussions that were recorded, others were just discussions by phone (with people in Guinea for example), but a full transcript of the interviews will not be done: some of the interviews lasted half an hour or an hour, and a reading a full transcript of the interviews would not be very efficient. The questions will be presented, and a summary of the themes covered during the interviews, and the answers, will be presented. 8.1 Questions Different questions were asked according to the type of stakeholder who was interrogated. There are two types. The questions’ themes will be presented below: these lists do not represent all the questions that were asked to the interviewed stakeholders, but they show the different themes that were covered during these interviews.

The first type of stakeholder is the users of this transport sector in Guinea. Four users were interviewed:

§ David: a Guinean adult, who was born in Guinea and lived in Conakry during his childhood and his teenage years. He lives in France now; § David’s sister: she still lives and works in Conakry; § Alice: a French adult who lived 2 years in Nzérékoré (sout-east of the country) between 2017 and 2019; § Mathieu: a French adult who lived 2 years in Conakry between 2011 and 2013; § Ines: a French adult who came to Guinea last month for work, and had to travel around the country.

The second type of stakeholder represents the actors of the transport sector: there job is related to this sector. Three actors were interviewed: § Barry: a Guinean driver; § Roberto: a transport economist who studied these question of transport planning in developing countries, especially in Africa; § Claire: a transport economist who developed alternative solutions to face transport challenges in developing countries.

8.1.1 Questions’ themes for the users’ group: § Where do you live? Since when do you live in Guinea? When did you live in Guinea? § What type(s) of transport do you use? Daily? Concerning urban transportation and transportation across the country? § What do you think about these transportation modes? In terms of comfort, speed, security, frequency, cost. § Does this meet your needs? § Do you technical problems / service interruptions? How often? § Do you know the company / entity / ministry responsible for this mode of transport? § Have you heard about/ seen any transport infrastructure projects? Have you heard of this transport issue from political decision-makers? Have you been consulted? § In place of the decision-makers, would you have made the same decisions for financing infrastructure? If not, what decisions would you have made? § Describe your ideal transport sector for Guinea / Conakry § Would you like to be asked to decide to participate in the decision-making concerning these transports? How would you be consulted (questionnaires / assemblies / participative workshops / votes)? 8.1.2 Questions’ themes for the actors’ group Questions for Barry, the Guinean driver:

§ Can you describe your job? § Where do work exactly? What are the journeys that you realize? At what time? § What are the positive and negative aspects of this job? § What do you think about Guinean’s roads? About road conditions / quality of network / safety / etc. § Do you see some transport infrastructure changes / projects implemented? Who are for you the main actors of these changes? § As a Guinean citizen, do you hear about politician actions in the transport sector? § Describe your ideal transport sector for Guinea / Conakry § Would you like to be asked to decide to participate in the decision-making concerning these transports? How would you be consulted (questionnaires / assemblies / participative workshops / votes)?

Questions for Roberto, the transport economist: § What are the main issues in transport planning in developing countries? § How is it possible to coordinate the different actors? § Can you describe how you realize a National Transport Plan? § How were your previous experiences of realizing a National Transport Plan? What difficulties did you face? § What are the different options to prioritize the projects in transport planning? Which factors have to be considered? § How is it possible to have engagements and cooperation with the private sector to have coherent and sustainable planning? § In your previous experiences, did you see real impacts with the elaboration of National Transport Plans and strategies?

§ Did you collaborate with the citizens in your previous experiences? 8.2 The users’ group 8.2.1 Mathieu’s interview Mathieu lived two years in Conakry, from 2011 to 2013. He made daily trips, from home to his work, and occasional trip during missions in the country, generally in Lower Guinea. During these two types of trips, he used the vehicle dedicated to the project on which he was working. He sometimes had a driver, and sometimes drove himself. His experience of transport in Guinea is very bad: according to him, in the city it is the worst (in Conakry) because of the congestion of roads and traffic jams. Traffic management is very poor in cities. In the countryside, it’s also very difficult to get around, this time because of the road conditions. Indeed, Guinea has a very heavy rainy season (4 meters of rain fall in 6 months), which damages the roads enormously. The country roads are in very poor condition, they are sometimes rehabilitated but the works do not hold up because of the rainy season.

Mathieu observed certain development projects in the transport sector. For example, he witnessed the rehabilitation of a country road, work carried out by a Chinese company. In Conakry, the interchange near the “November 8th bridge” was also carried out when he was in the country, this time the works were carried out by a French company. He was also informed of a plan for buses subsidized by China when these buses were touring the country to be run around, but never actually saw them in circulation.

He was not consulted on these planning issues. He thinks Guineans are aware of the projects that are going to take place, through television or the media, but he has not really taken an interest in the matter.

In terms of security, Mathieu finds that the transport sector in Guinea is dangerous, more in the countryside than in the cities (where because of the traffic we don't move much anyway). The greatest danger lies in the fact that many Guineans drive without a license. He himself had a Guinean permit, and was often checked (sometimes for nothing) because of his expatriate status. Guineans are less controlled and can circulate without a permit. The danger is greater on rural roads than in town. In the city, traffic jams also cause very high pollution. Fortunately there is a lot of wind in Conakry, but that does not prevent us from having a very high threshold of pollution. Living in Conakry, Mathieu never took the Conakry Express, but his colleagues used it daily. Indeed, he worked at the Directorate General of Rural Engineering, which is eccentric compared to the centre of activity of Conakry (Khaloum).

For him, the first actions to be taken to improve the transport sector in Guinea would be to train the policemen and drivers to increase safety on the road. Deleting the priority to the right rule on the roundabouts would also be a very good measure!

In addition, to alleviate road maintenance problems caused by the rainy season, improving water drainage in Conakry would be a first step. Public transport should also be developed and activity centres created on the outskirts in order to decentralize commuter migration.

8.2.2 Alice’s interview Alice lived in Guinea for two years, from 2017 to 2019. She lived in Nzérécoré, in the southeast of the country, in Forest Guinea. To go from Conakry (where she arrived by plane on each of her trips), it was quite an epic: there is indeed no train or plane line to connect this city (the third largest city of the country), which is located about 1000km from Conakry. She therefore used public transport, which comes down to road public transport, and are of two types: minibuses and "7 seats".

Minibuses are a kind of mini van that could originally carry 15 to 20 people, but in practice carrying 30 to 40 travellers. To these travellers are added animals (especially goats), and travellers' luggage. Travellers' luggage is attached to the roof, and sometimes reaches a height equivalent to the height of the minibus, which disturbs the balance of the vehicle. This mode of transportation is the cheapest, but is very dangerous and uncomfortable. The Conakry-Nzérécoré route is not direct, Alice had no change to make but the minibus made several short stops, in particular to change the driver. The bus is driven by two drivers, two young people, often minors, who do not necessarily have their license but worked as a mechanic and learned to drive in this context. The journey costs between 10 and 15 euros, and lasts one to two days.

The second means of public transport to go from Conakry to Nzérékoré is the "7 seats". It is an old car (Peugeot or Renault), which has been fitted out to go from 5 to 7 seats (in addition to the driver): there are 4 people in the middle and 3 in the trunk, where seats are added. It is a very uncomfortable form of transportation, but much safer than minibuses. The luggage is also on the roof, but there is less because fewer passengers. The journey costs 250,000 Guinean francs, or about 25 euros. There is only one driver, who takes a couple of one or two hour breaks to take a nap. This means of transport is also user-friendlier, since it is possible to agree with other travellers in order to take breaks and organize themselves during the trip.

In the city, in Nzérékoré, Alice made all her trips on foot. Otherwise, if she needed to travel a little further, she used motorcycle taxis. This mode of transportation is very dangerous: people all drive very fast, without wearing a helmet, and there are many accidents. She preferred a motorcycle taxi driver whom she knew well, in order to make these trips with a trusted person. A major difficulty with these road journeys is the general condition of the roads. Indeed, the roads are not paved, and very damaged, in particular because of the rainy season, which is very heavy in Guinea. This creates monster traffic jams when the roads are blocked, and the journeys can go from 2 to 3 days because of these road condition problems.

Alice has not seen any real action from the State on road infrastructure. Everyone around her complained on a daily basis that the state was doing nothing about it. She nevertheless observed some road paving works in Guéckédou (north of Nzérékoré), but it wad a Chinese company that carried out these works.

For Alice, the main actions to be undertaken in the road sector in Guinea concern the pavement of roads. This would limit the problems associated with the rainy season, streamline traffic and make it safer. Another way to make it safer is to

legislate better on driver's licenses, as most people drive without a license, which increases insecurity on the roads. The pictures below were taken by Alice. They represent some “7 seats” cars that she used to travel.

Figure 12: Car with a driver

Figure 13: Car with militaries

Figure 14: Car with a driver

Figure 15: Car with transport of goods on the roof

The state of roads in Forested Guinea: the pictures below show a paved road, a non-paved road, and a man trying to cross a flooded road during the rainy season.

Figure 16: A break during the journey on a paved road

Figure 17: An unpaved road

Figure 18: A man trying to cross a flooded road during the rainy season 8.2.3 David’s interview David lived in a town called Labé, in Fouta-Djalon, until 2005. He was actually born there. From 2005 to 2007 he lived in Coyah, a prefecture located 50 kilometers from Conakry; and from 2007 to 2010 he lived near Conakry, at the Cimenterie, for his studies.

He mainly used public transport (taxi, magbana, and, more recently (around 2009), motorcycle-taxi). On the other hand, in his childhood in Labé, he did not have much need to use public transport, his perimeter of displacement not requiring it at that time. In town, from 2005, he used either the taxi or the magbana, and sometimes also the bus. For long trips in the country it was often by bus or taxi.

Comfort? There are very few in the magbanas (the magbanas are minibuses which circulate mainly in the city of Conakry, they also provide a link between certain cities in Lower Guinea, near Conakry). There is a little more comfort in the taxis that make long trips. But in general, the limit of places is hardly respected. Overload is very common; which doesn't really contribute to comfort. The buses, despite the overload, are sometimes more comfortable. This is especially because they are more spacious than other vehicles. Taxis are faster, but the small size and deterioration of certain sections can make journeys longer. In general the prices are adequate. The frequency is also satisfactory, especially for long trips. In the city, on the other hand, during rush hour, it can sometimes take a long time to find a taxi or even a magbana. The peak occurs during the time of Muslim Ramadam, when everyone wants to go home before the time of breaking the fast.

Policy makers? David heard from time to time evocations of road construction projects. They are however slow to be implemented... He also witnessed works related to transport. Many roads have been under construction in Guinea, and this has been the case for some time. It is certainly advancing very slowly, but it is advancing anyway. There is for example a project to build a national road parallel to this currently connecting the capital and the cities of the hinterland (Kindia, Mamou, etc.). However, David doesn't know where it is at the moment. As for the consultation by vote or referendum for development projects in the transport sector, until 2011 (the year of his departure from the country), he never heard of it (as far as he can remember).

For David, the first thing to improve would spontaneously be the quality of the road construction work and their regular maintenance. He realized that many sections built yet recently are already deteriorating. It hardly benefits anyone. There is very little road maintenance. We need more.

About being consulted, David would rather say by participative workshop and then vote, provided the voting decisions are effectively implemented... 8.2.4 Madeleine’s interview Currently I live in Conakry in the Lambanyi district since my marriage a year and 4 months ago. I have a car for 2 years now, and I generally use it for my trips. Before that, I moved in taxis or minibuses. To go in other cities or in the countryside, I use my car if it is in the prefectures neighbouring the capital otherwise I go by taxi or minibus or I look for opportunities with friends or people traveling with their personal vehicles. With these personal vehicles, there is some comfort and the travels are quite fast as these vehicles work well and are in good condition. On the other hand, it is not the case with taxis or buses.

Indeed, there is a real surcharge in these vehicles so you have to stay behind with 3 other people, and two are at the front of the car. For a long distance, we arrive completely exhausted. I don't travel often for the interior of the country but I think the prices are affordable. The security is a real problem for long distance: there is absolutely no security, for example road blockers often are in activity between Mamou and Fananah on the forest road (two prefectures very distant from each other) and harass the travellers.

Regarding construction projects, I noticed a road between Kissidougou and Gueckedou in Forest Guinea, which is under construction. The works have progressed a lot and I noticed it in 2016 when I went there. In Conakry too, between 2013 and 2019 two road sections were built on the Sonfonia-Cimenterie- Kagbelen axe, and another section from Lansanya (a district of Conakry) to the prefecture of Coyah (50 km from Conakry). In my Lambanyi district too, there is a road leading into town which is is currently under construction for extension. Lately I followed the Minister of Transport saying on television that there is a project to build an road interchange in a populated area of the suburbs to avoid the endless traffic congestion that occur at this place. There are also other road

construction projects in the interior of the country (around Dabola) but I don’t know a lot about these projects. I have never been consulted in relation to such projects, and I think that the first thing to do to improve the transport sector in Guinea is to build new roads, we do not have real paved roads and their number is insufficient. If you were to consult me I would prefer that we organize workshops in each prefecture and collect the opinion for each one in order to take into account the concerns of each other on the question. 8.2.5 Ines’ interview I spent two weeks in Guinea for work. I arrived in Conakry by plane and I went to Mamou by car, a town 250 km from Conakry. I had a personal car with a driver, and I found the roads to be in very (very) bad shape.

Indeed, there is a lot of dust and the dust makes visibility very poor. In addition, the roads are very narrow and there are many potholes: there is only one road so large trucks like cars use them, which does not help either the traffic or the state of the road.

I saw the taxis used by most people (there is no public transport), we see in the photos below an example of these taxis: an old Renault Nevada in which people crowd, with goods also on the roof, and even the replacement driver on the roof. We can see the inscription “n’oublie pas ta maman” ("don't forget your mom") on the rear window: the roads are dangerous so people wish each other good luck on each crossing and say a prayer. The lack of public transportation means that to transport of goods from one end of the country to the other is on the roofs of already overloaded cars.

Figure 19: A car with the inscription “n’oublie pas ta maman”

Figure 20: A car in the dust

Figure 21: A car with the driver and luggage on the roof

8.3 The actors’ interviews 8.3.1 Roberto’s interview Roberto, holder of a master's degree in economics from the University of Turin (1988), has more than 31 years of experience as project manager and transport economist in more than 60 projects and programs funded by Donors (among others: EU, WB, IDB, AfDB, AFD) in developing countries (more than 40 different countries including 20 African countries). He has extensive experience in the transport sector in activities related to the entire project cycle: planning, identification and formulation of projects / programs, economic and financial evaluation, traffic studies and ex ante, mid-term and final evaluations. He has carried out more than 2 studies of national transport plans including the development of Jordan’s long-term national transport strategy as a Team Leader, as well as the development of Ghana’s railway master plan. Among other things, he designed an integrated regional transport plan for Abruzzo and a transport plan for Sardinia (Italy).

He has extensive experience in the planning and definition of transport policies and strategies. He was project manager in the preparation of the National Long-Term Transport Strategy of Jordan (between 2012 and 2014). It was a multimodal strategy, based on the results of the Jordanian Master Plan for the Road Network (2009-2010), in which he participated as a Transport Economist. It is important to emphasize that Jordan's Transport Strategy is characterized by a strong regional connotation, due to the geographic position of the country, in the middle among the oil powers of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates), on one side, and the countries of the European Union on the other side. In this, there is a point of convergence with the transport sector of Guinea, which can play a similar role in the western part of West Africa, by providing an opening up opportunity for the Sahelian countries, especially in Mali across the Bamako- Conakry corridor. Roberto's undeniable experience in technical assistance to public bodies for the implementation of Transport Plans as well as his great capacity to support sectorial reforms, in particular with the aim of devolving transport management, make this expert a very interesting interlocutor on these questions of governance in the transport sector of Guinea.

A long-term work during different interviews realised in October 2019 was realized with Roberto regarding this research project. It would be complicated to summarize his contribution, but his overall experiences about transportation and actors in developing countries were an asset for this research project. His main inputs and explanations are presented in the chapter “Results and analyses” (especially result n°4).

9 REFERENCES

§ Agger, A., & Löfgren K. (2008). Democratic Assessment of Collaborative Planning Processes. Planning Theory, 7(2), 145-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095208090432

§ Alden, C. (2009). China in Africa. Zed Books

§ Anonym. (2013). Transport: the train "Conakry Express" suspends its activities. GuineeTime. https://www.guineetime.com/2013/04/09/transport-le-train- conakry-express-suspend-ses-activites/

§ Barry, I. A. (2017). Guinea-China Partnership. MadinaMen. https://www.madinamen.com/2017/01/30/partenariat-guinee-chine/

§ Canning, D., & Fay M. (1993). The Effect of Transportation Networks on Economic Growth, Department of Economics Discussion Papers, 653a, 1-37. Department of Economics, Columbia University. https://doi.org/10.7916/D80K2H4N

§ Campbell, H. (2006). Just Planning: The Art of Situated Ethical Judgment. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 26, 92-106. DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06288090

§ Cars, G., Healey, P., Madanipour, A., & de Maghalhaes, C. (2002). Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux. Ashgate Pusblishing Limited

§ Diallo, B. (2007). External Debt and Financing of Economic Development in Guinea. African Economic Conference, 9, 211-239 https://afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Knowledge/Conference_200 7_anglais_09-part-II-2.pdf

§ Drame, M. L. (2019). Impact of mining companies on the Mambia / Kindia Community: The 1st Vice Mayor requests the CBK to multiply the support and it requires the training of youth. Kankan Radio. https://www.radio-

kankan.com/impacte-des-societes-miniere-sur-la-communaute-mambiakindia- le-1er-vice-maire-demande-la-cbk-de-multiplie-les-appui-et-il-exige-la- formation-de-la-jeunesse/

§ Ekeh, P. P. (1975). Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17(1), 91-112. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010- 4175%28197501%2917%3A1%3C91%3ACATTPI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23

§ Edoho, F. M. (2011). Globalization and Marginalization of Africa: Contextualization of China-Africa Relations. Africa Today, 58(1), 103-124. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/africatoday.58.1.103

§ Faludi, A. (2012). Multi-Level (Territorial) Governance: Three Criticisms. Planning, Theory & Practice, 13(2), 197-211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2012.677578

§ Flyvbjerg, B. (2002). Bringing Power to Planning Research: One Researcher's Praxis Story. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 21, 353-366. http://jpe.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/4/353

§ Fulmer, J. E. (2009). What in the world is infrastructure?. Infrastructure Investor, 30-32. https://30kwe1si3or29z2y020bgbet-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp- content/uploads/2018/03/what-in-the-world-is-infrastructure.pdf

§ George, F. S. (2014). China and Africa Love Affair: An Historical Perspective. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

§ Haugaard, M. (2003). Reflections on Seven Ways of Creating Power. European Journal of Social Theory 6(1): 87-113. DOI: 10.1177/1368431003006001562

§ Innes, J. E., & Booher, D. E. (2004). Reframing Public Participation: Strategies for the 21st Century. Planning Theory & Practice, 5(4), 419-436. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gr9b2v5

§ Kooiman, J. (2003). Governing as Governance. SAGE Publications Ltd

§ Laurent, M., & Dion, C. (Directors). (2015). Demain. Move Movie, France 2 cinéma, Mars films, Mely Production

§ Lockwood, M. (2005). Will a Marshall Plan for Africa Make Poverty History?, Journal of International Development, 17, 775-789. DOI: 10.1002/jid.1240

§ Lan, X. M., Chen, O. B., & Lim, K. S. (2016). The Infrastructure Development in the Republic of Guinea. Athens Journal of Business and Economics, 277-290. https://www.athensjournals.gr/business/2016-2-3-3-Lan.pdf

§ Ministry of Mines and Geology of Guinea. (2018). https://mines.gov.gn/en/

§ Ministry of Transport, & Ministry of Public Work of Guinea. (2002). National Transport Plan of Guinea

§ Ministry of Transport, & Ministry of Public Work of Guinea. (2019). Sectorial Political Letter

§ Sanoh, S. (2020). Urban transport: due to unsanitary conditions, the Conakry Express train is stopped. GuineeNews, https://www.guineenews.org/transport- urbain-a-cause-de-linsalubrite-le-train-conakry-express-est-a-larret/

§ SMP. (2018). Guinea Mining Symposium. https://ametrade.org/smguinee/fr/symposium-mines-guinee-les-grandes-lignes/

§ SOFRECO Company. (2019). Update of Guinea's National Transport Plan – Tender documents

§ Stoker, G. (1998). Governance as theory: five propositions. International Social Science Journal, 50, 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/issj.12189

§ United Nations. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

§ United Nations. (2020). UNdata. https://data.un.org/online

§ Watson, V. (2003). Conflicting Rationalities: Implications for Planning Theory and Ethics. Planning Theory & Practice, 4(4), 395-407. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464935032000146318

§ World Bank Group. (2018). Republic of Guinea – Overcoming Growth Stagnation To Reduce Poverty - Systematic Country Diagnostic. Report No. 123649-GN, 1-104. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/830641522072107327/Guinea- Systematic-Country-Diagnostic-overcoming-growth-stagnation-to-reduce- poverty

§ Xinhua. (2010). Arrival of Conakry Express locomotives and wagons, the fruit of cooperation with China. Guineelibre. http://guineelibre.over-blog.com/article- arrivee-des-locomotives-et-wagons-de-conakry-express-fruit-de-la-cooperation- avec-la-chine-52673859.html

65 TRITA TRITA-ABE-MBT-2037