Regional Seminar Proceedings 1993

INTRODUCTION

The seminar was held from 27 September to 1 October in Harare with a total of 80 participants from 18 countries. The participants consisted of ILO technical advisers, counterpart ministry staff and consultants engaged in labour-based roadworks. The meeting was hosted by the Zimbabwe Institute of Civil Engineers.

This seminar was the third in a series of reviews of current practice in labour-based technology, and was organized and conducted by the ILO ASIST¹ team, which is responsible for the promotion of this technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first seminar was held in Mbeya, Tanzania in 1990 with 21 participants from 6 countries. The second seminar took place in Mohales Hoek, Lesotho, in March 1992, with 36 participants from 14 countries².

The purpose of these seminars is to bring together labour-based practitioners from the region to discuss and exchange between the various country programmes, thereby improving the application and efficiency of labour-based methods in road construction and maintenance.

Four major topics related to labour-based road works were discussed during this seminar, namely appropriate tools and equipment, small-scale contractor development, the involvement of women and the Technical Enquiry Service of the ASIST project. A one-day field trip was organized to present the labour-based road construction and maintenance programme of Zimbabwe.

Tools and Equipment

Although labour-based methods emphasize an extensive use of labour rather than equipment, a significant part of the costs and attention of project staff is devoted to the use of equipment. Tools and equipment on labour-based projects constitute only 20-30% of the total costs on road construction and rehabilitation projects. Furthermore, appropriate and good quality equipment is essential for the achievement of high production rates and good rates and good quality work, as well as a proper working environment. The Technical Enquiry Service of ASIST tries to collect and disseminate available information and experience on this topic, which has proven to be an issue of high concern for project managers.

Small-scale Contractor Development

Traditionally, most labour-based road projects have been Government-executed work schemes. However, in recent years, the private domestic contracting industry has become more and more involved with this programme. This session presented the experience from labour-based road programmes where the roadworks have been successfully carried out by domestic small-scale contractors trained in the use of labour-based road construction and maintenance methods.

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¹ASIST, Advisory Support, Information Services and Training in Labour-based Technology, a regional programme funded by NORAD, SIDA AND SDC.

² Labour-based Technology, A Review of Current Practice, Volumes 1 and 2, 26 - 28 February 1990, Mbeya, Tanzania, ILO, Geneva.

Labour-based Technology, A Review of Current Practice, 2 - 6 March 1992, Mohales Hoek, Lesotho. These reports are available on request from ILO, Geneva.

The Technical Enquiry Service

The ILO has designed a programme, funded by donors, to provide advisory support, information and training (ASIST) to labour-based road construction and maintenance programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the main objective of increasing the efficiency of the management of the programmes. One of the outputs to achieve this goal is to provide a service of information collection, research, collation and distribution on subjects related to this technology. A Technical Enquiry Service within ASIST has been established to provide these services.

During this session the participants were briefed on the current status of TES and the type of services which can now be provided. Finally, the participants were requested to prioritize their information and research requirements.

To date, the Technical Enquiry Service has acquired and catalogued 1580 publications relating to labour-based technology, which are kept in a computer database. This information is available upon request for labour-based practitioners in the region.

Following a recommendation from the Lesotho meeting, TES now produces a labour-based journal covering a specific topic in each issue. The journal covers information related to one specific topic in terms of ongoing research and development, available literature, recommended reading, key contact persons, presentation of project activities, etc. The first issue of the ASIST journal was completed in Ma 1993 and a second issue is expected in November this year. The topic for the next issue will be appropriate design and use of tools and equipment for labour-based roadworks.

Women and Labour-based Roadworks

Labour-based road programmes have always made an effort to promote the employment of women. This session provided a review of how the various programmes have achieved this objective and how it has been received in rural societies and by project management. Finally, it was also discussed how this issue can be secured when involving the private sector in the execution of the roadworks.

Site Visit

The participants had the opportunity to visit some of the activities of the labour-based road construction programme in Zimbabwe, during a one day visit to road sites in Mutoko District.

Plan of Action

During the last day of the seminar, the participants were organized in groups, each of which prepared a set of recommendations for future action in relation to the above topics. During the final plenary discussions at the end of the day, these recommendations were further discussed and prioritized for ASIST follow up.

II STRUCTURE OF THIS REPORT

This report follows the order of the sessions as they took place during the seminar. The comments and questions related to the papers presented are summarized in a separate chapter after the presentations under each session. These summaries also include the general findings of the plenary discussions which evolved after the various presentations. The findings of the discussion groups are presented as a separate chapter under Session 7.

Due to time constraints during the seminar, all papers were not presented in their full form. Nevertheless, this report presents the full versions of all the papers prepared for this event.

III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The ILO/ASIST secretariat to this seminar appreciated the crucial assistance they received from the project staff from the Zimbabwe labour-based programme in the organization and support of the 4-day event, as well as the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers who hosted the seminar. Furthermore, we would like to thank the participants for their efforts in travelling and contribution to this seminar, and their employers for allowing for their absence and travel costs.