Training Workshop on Soil and Water Conservation for Road Construction Engineers, Technicians, Environmental and Social Experts in Tanzania, 06 – 17 May 2019, Iringa, Tanzania

ILO News (Dar es Salaam) The ILO in collaboration with the government and other partners, are conducting a two weeks training of trainers’ workshop on soil and water conservation techniques related to road construction and maintenance in Tanzania, targeting labour-based trainers, engineers technicians, Environmental and Social Experts from road authorities and other project partners from both Mainland and Zanzibar.

The training is meant to attend to an increasing demand, from the road users and regional authorities, for practical interventions to ensure that the run offs from upper-catchment to the roads and from the roads to lower-catchment areas are disposed to the lowest natural course without causing much damage.

The workshop is aimed at mainstreaming environmental protection in particular the erosion prevention and control in the delivery of road infrastructure and will involve more than 30 trainers from labour-based training institutions and technical staff drawn from Tanzania Rural Roads Agency (TARURA), Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS), Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), the Appropriate Technology Training Institute (ATTI) and from the two relevant Ministries from the Mainland and the Isles. The training will focus mainly on soil and water conservation techniques that are amenable for road construction and maintenance works which will eventually lead to the development of new curriculum and training materials that can be used by the training institutions as part of their vocational skill training packages.

The ILO, with funding from the Irish Government, is implementing a 5 years (2017-2021) programme, Inclusive Growth, Social Protection and Jobs Programme (IGSPJ Irish Aid/ILO), with an overall goal of ensuring that national governments use well designed and managed social protection measures and employment promoting approaches to the delivery of public investments. This will then lead to the promotion of resilience, access to services and employment opportunities for the poor and vulnerable people, thereby contributing to inclusive economic growth. The Programme has two components: Social Protection and Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) and covers five countries namely Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Vietnam (for Social Protection Component) and Tanzania (for Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) component). Key project outcomes include:

•       Inclusive and transparent pro-employment investment strategies mainstreamed in national employment policies and programmes
•          Procurement systems, procedures and legal frameworks at national and local level reformed and adopted to increase the participation of small scale enterprises, contractors and local communities in infrastructure delivery
•          Employment-intensive investment planning and technical capacity of institutional partners strengthened and
•     Enhanced capacity of stakeholders and institutions to apply tools, methodologies and strategies developed under the programme