1. To bring together practitioners in labour-based roadworks so that they could exchange experiences
2. To update participants on policies and programmes in labour-based roadworks in Sub-Saharan Afria
3. To identify and debate key issues relating to labour- based urban development and labour-based education and training.

The first two objectives are common to all the regional seminars while the third objective includes the two main themes of this specific seminar.

Urban Development

Efforts made to introduce labour-based techniques have mainly targeted the rural areas, and in particular the rural road sector. However, in many African countries there is a growing interest in applying such techniques also in urban areas. The seminar was to provide an opportunity to review and discuss urban labour-based projects. The main questions were the extent of required adaptation of the existing techniques and the possibility of using community participation.

Education and Training

Education and training embraces aspects of planning and implementation of both private and public sector training programmes. Another central question of importance is how to integrate courses on labour-based technology into formal educational and training systems.