CTP 145 Regional Seminar for Labour-Based Practitioners In The Road Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa Department of Feeder Roads, Ministry of Roads and Highways in collaboration with ASIST Accra, Ghana 22 - 26 April 1996 Labour-based Technology - A Review of Current Practice PAPERS OF THE FIFTH REGIONAL SEMINAR Theme of the seminar: Labour-based Contracting Compiled by: Jan Fransen, Angela Kabiru and David Mason ILO/ASIST, Nairobi International Labour Organisation Advisory Support, Information Services and Training (ASIST), Nairobi, Kenya Copyright International Labour Organisation 1996 Seminar papers Copyright Authors of the papers Publications of the International Labour Organisation enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorisation, on the condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to the Publications Branch (Rights and Permissions), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. The International Labour Organisation welcomes such applications. ISSN: 1020-4962 First published 1996 The document is available from ILO/ASIST, P.O. Box 60598, Nairobi, Kenya and the Development Policies Branch, ILO, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland The designations employed in ILO Publications, which are in conformity with United Nations Practice, and the presentation of the material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Organisation concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. 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Printed by the International Labour Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland Page 2 Labour-based Technology — A Review of Current Practice/ Papers 1996 Table of Contents 1 POLICY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT............................. 5 1.1 A study of labour–based contracting commissioned by the ILO ..... 6 1.2 The Development of labour-based road contracting for road works ............................................................................................. 29 1.3 Managing labour in labour-based activities: An approach for sustaining labour-based contracting............................................ 39 1.4 The client/contractor relationship in labour-based construction and maintenance ................................................................................. 53 1.5 Force account or contractors? A comparison of Kenya and Ghana ............................................................................................ 61 1.6 Research in labour-intensive construction and related development issues at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg... 68 1.7 Contract documentation for labour-based road construction........ 83 2 LABOUR-BASED CONTRACTING IN GHANA......................... 91 2.1 The development of a labour-based road programme involving the private sector — The Ghana experience ...................................... 92 2.2 The Labour-based programme in Ghana: Facts and figures as at December, 1995. ......................................................................... 100 2.3 The Maintenance Performance Budgeting System (MPBS) of the Department of Feeder Roads in Ghana. .................................... 117 2.4 A study of the field performance of selected labour-based contractors in Ghana.................................................................. 127 2.5 Factors influencing the output of labour-based contractors in Ghana ......................................................................................... 157 2.6 The problems facing labor-based road programs and what to do about them.................................................................................. 166 3 APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY ............................................... 209 3.1 Enhancing equipment loan repayment for small-scale labour-based contractors .................................................................................. 212 3.2 Should trained labour-based road contractors be equipped? The Tanzanian experience................................................................. 224 3.3 Counterparts and technology transfer. Can we improve the system? ......................................................................................... 237 3.4 Summary of workshop on intermediate equipment for labour- based roadworks......................................................................... 241 Labour-based Technology — A Review of Current Practice / Papers 1996 Page 3 4 URBAN DEVELOPMENT ...........................................................259 4.1 Labour-based contracting in the Durban Metropolitan area of South Africa ................................................................................ 260 4.2 Appropriate technology management of labour-intensive work in Greater Johannesburg................................................................ 270 4.3 Kawangware road improvement and the lessons learnt ............. 279 4.4 Research and development in labour-intensive construction of medium to heavy volume trafficked roads in South Africa ....... 286 Page 4 Labour-based Technology — A Review of Current Practice / Papers 1996 1 POLICY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Labour-based Technology — A Review of Current Practice / Papers 1996 Page 5 1.1 A study of labour–based contracting commissioned by the ILO Alex Twumasi-Boakye, Deputy Director Planning, Department of Feeder Roads, Accra, Ghana 1.0 INTRODUCTION Many African countries have a pre-independence experience of the use of labour–based methods especially for routine maintenance and minor rehabilitation works. The technical ministries/departments operated through direct labour (force account) systems. However, the immediate post-independence era, from 1960, introduced the use of heavy equipment for road maintenance works. Up to the early 1970's the heavy (imported) equipment produced satisfactory results, and the small networks of roads were well maintained. However, the need to either upgrade or expand the existing road networks using (imported) heavy equipment against the backdrop of the oil glut of the mid 1970's created serious problems for the fragile economies of several countries on the African continent. Many African governments resorted to seeking donor-support to fund the increased volume of work on roads. Unfortunately, however, donors were more sympathetic to major reconstruction and rehabilitation works. The result was that even though more roads were added to the maintainable network, routine and recurrent maintenance were neglected. An attempt to solve the routine maintenance problem was the initiation of the Kenya Rural Access Roads Programme in the mid 1970's. This involved the use of labour based methods by the Ministry of Public Works direct labour (force account) for rural roads maintenance. In the past, the reconstruction, improvement and periodic maintenance of roads have been undertaken by equipment-based contractors; routine and recurrent maintenance, was however undertaken by Government departments through direct labour (force account) equipment-intensive operations. Most of the major road works have been undertaken by large international contractors with very little involvement of the local contractors. Inadequate Government budgetary allocations for direct labour routine and recurrent maintenance works have also contributed significantly to the lack of maintenance of roads. It is evident that Governments are more willing to pay for contracts than direct labour works which, obviously, show a lot of wastage of resources. The World Bank, recognising the effectiveness of the labour–based approach to maintenance, especially by contract, included it in its Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI) in the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Page 6 Labour-based Technology — A Review of Current Practice / Papers 1996 Programme (SSATP). Thereafter the Bank sponsored the labour– based contractor development programme as the feeder road component of the 4th Highway Project for Ghana. The move towards the privatisation of road maintenance works is further strengthened by the various Structural Adjustment Programmes which require Governments to drastically reduce the number of civil servants (called re–eployment in Ghana). The staff reduction/retrenchment/re–deployment has affected the technical departments as well; hence direct labour works have suffered. It is, therefore, no wonder that after Ghana's experience, several other donor-supported labour–based contracting projects have sprung up in Africa. With the exception of South Africa, the projects have been on rural roads. In South Africa, in addition to roads (municipal and rural), labour–based contracting has been applied to buildings, water supply (reticulation) schemes and power supply. Even though there are similarities in the application of labour–based contracting methods, it is evident that there are still