The provision and maintenance of a sustainable rural road network requires a sound institutional capacity able to deal with the technical, financial and administrative challenges in the provision of a sustainable and affordable network, serving the economic and social needs of the rural population. The parlous state of rural roads networks in many developing countries is not merely a problem of lack of financial resources. Lack of capacityto plan and implement the works is also a serious constraint. Political interference, the imbalance between funds allocated for improvement of roads and those allocated for maintenance, the limited user involvement, poor financial, budgeting and procurement systems contribute to the problem. The paper draws together the work carried out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other agencies on the development of the capacity of decentralised road agencies, the establishment of financing procedures andbudgeting, the promotion of effective contract management systems, the search for functional maintenance based on the principles of asset management and the need to integrate rural road development with other sectors suchas health, education and agriculture in order to maximise both the economic and also the poverty reduction potential of a coherent rural road network. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract