Assisting the development of the road sector in Uganda CrossRoads – fi ve years of progress DECEMBER 2015 Our Vision is to “create a sustainable market system that will encourage both public and private sector actors to develop a more effi cient and competitive road construction and maintenance industry in Uganda.” Contents Contents ..............................................................................................................................................1 CONTENTS Foreword .............................................................................................................................................2 About this report ..............................................................................................................................3 1. Using market systems to understand the road sector ..................................................4 Understanding Uganda’s road sector ...........................................................................................................4 2. Changing the dynamics of Uganda’s road sector ...........................................................6 Policy research, analysis and advocacy ........................................................................................................6 Approaches used .................................................................................................................................................6 Main achievements and impacts ...................................................................................................................7 3. Improving access to fi nance ...............................................................................................12 Building bridges to fi nancial institutions: the Construction Guarantee Fund ............................ 12 Supporting equipment leasing.................................................................................................................... 14 Long-term maintenance contracts ............................................................................................................. 15 4. Making better use of plant and equipment ..................................................................16 Training Uganda’s plant operators .............................................................................................................. 16 Understanding the status of MoWT equipment.................................................................................... 18 Developing an equipment management system manual .................................................................18 5. Building capacity in the road sector.................................................................................22 Supporting DIT to develop vocational qualifi cations ..........................................................................22 Certifying vocational skills ............................................................................................................................. 23 Training road contractors in fi nance and business management ...................................................25 Making a national association an industry leader ................................................................................ 26 Introducing international standards for consulting engineers ........................................................ 27 Developing the practical training of graduate engineers ..................................................................28 6. Sponsoring research and innovation ...............................................................................30 Why was CrossRoads undertaking research?.......................................................................................... 30 Why encourage innovation? ......................................................................................................................... 30 The CrossRoads Challenge Fund ................................................................................................................. 30 7. Leaving a continuing legacy ...............................................................................................34 Training contractors in fi nance and business management .............................................................34 Teaching children how to stay safe on the roads .................................................................................. 35 Leaving simulators and real plant for sustainable training ................................................................35 Identifying human resources’ requirements ........................................................................................... 35 8. Resources .....................................................................................................................................36 1 Foreword As CrossRoads draws to a close, the Secretariat is very In terms of the lifecycle of road planning, design, FOREWORD FOREWORD keen to see its work continue to have an impact long construction and maintenance, CrossRoads’ fi ve year into the future. This desire to have as much eff ect as life span has been very short. So, we have to recognise possible is a major reason for producing this report. that we are not going to be able to record all the It not only gives an overview of what CrossRoads has impacts that the Programme has created. However, the achieved, but also ensures that stakeholders will still team is proud of what we have achieved to date, while have easy access to our key documents after our offi ce working with the country’s contractors, consultants, has closed. government ministries and departments, and civil society. CrossRoads was managed by a Secretariat from IMC Worldwide. As Team Leader, I believe that CrossRoads’ CrossRoads had two main aims: to help improve the outputs, such as its training courses, its Guarantee quality of Uganda’s road network and to help improve Fund, its research and the work we’ve done to change the effi ciency of the Government of Uganda’s spending government thinking about the importance of local on roads. The Government of Uganda demonstrated contractors have contributed strongly to changing key its commitment to reform, by increasing expenditure behaviours in Uganda’s road market. on roads, passing new policy on the construction sector, and several other measures. Working together Though no one programme can claim full credit for I think we achieved some really strong impacts, with the positive changes that have been seen in Uganda’s the road sector in a much better position to attract road sector over the past fi ve years, it is no coincidence the investment needed to improve the country’s road that since CrossRoads began its work the confi dence of network. fi nancial institutions in the road sector has increased. The average cost of constructing a kilometre of road to I am confi dent that CrossRoads will continue to yield bitumen standard has decreased by UGX 1 billion results well into the future, bringing benefi t to Uganda, (USD 293,000), and the Uganda National Roads its industry and population. Authority is awarding long-term (three years) maintenance contracts. David Entwistle (December 2015) David Entwistle, Team Leader Alex Mugova, Market Systems Specialist 2 About this report Section 1 summarises the approach the Secretariat has Section 5 looks at the work CrossRoads did to taken with CrossRoads, bringing a new understanding build capacity in the road sector. CrossRoads of the road sector in Uganda, eliminating some of the worked with the Directorate of Industrial Training to myths surrounding plant and equipment around the develop vocational training opportunities, worked country, and highlighting the major issues that the to strengthen the Uganda National Association of THIS ABOUT REPORT road sector faces. The fi nding that Uganda actually Building and Civil Engineering Contractors and helped has enough plant and equipment allowed us to focus train consulting engineers to international standards. on increasing the availability, use and effi ciency of the CrossRoads also started training contractors running plant and equipment already available in the country. smaller enterprises in the skills they need to operate in a competitive commercial environment. Section 2 looks at the dynamics of the road sector and the success of CrossRoads in changing the behaviour Section 6 shows how CrossRoads-funded research of market actors. After adopting the market systems contributed to the growth of the transport sector, approach, policy research, analysis and advocacy were reducing construction costs, improving road safety, used to transform behaviour and practices, resulting generating jobs and empowering poor communities. A in, among other impacts, increasing the availability of series of case studies detailed in this section illustrates information on road sector issues, raising the brand the success of the CrossRoads Challenge Fund that was and profi le of the Roads Industry Council (RIC) and established to help drive innovation in the Ugandan improving monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in the market. road sector. Section 7 illustrates the lasting legacy in Uganda’s road Section 3 describes how access to fi nance has sector. At the end of fi ve years of work with partners, improved, by establishing the CrossRoads Construction each area of focus has created measurable changes in Guarantee Fund, to build trust between contractors Uganda’s road sector. Examples range