Sectoral Programmes

ASIST is covering the following sectors:

Road Sector

Urban Upgrading

Access interventions

Irrigation Development

Water and Soil Conservation

Sanitation and Waste Management

Road Sector

The importance of rural roads extends to all aspects of economic and social development of rural communities, including demands for and access to health, education, information, etc. The total need for upgrading and maintenance of rural roads in the developing world is enormous and will have to be addressed with limited resources calling for better policies and practices.

The scarcity of resources, the low traffic flows and the fact that all-year vehicular access is not always necessary, all indicate that conventionally engineered roads are in many instances neither necessary nor possible. This point out the need to developappropriate engineering standards for low volume roadsand design and maintain rural roads in relation to specific levels of serviceability defined in terms of access and usage.

The prime consideration in defining rural road improvements should be reliability and durability rather than speed and comfort. This would lead to concentrating expenditure on surface drainage and essential structures, on spot surface improvements in critical sections, on essential access and rehabilitation of existing roads, and on routine maintenance, rather than on geometric characteristics determined by design speeds.

The construction sector, where substantial national investments are made in most developing countries, has a great potential to create productive employment. Road construction and maintenance operations account for the lion share of these investments. In addition, the sector particularly lend itself to employment-intensive approaches and is a sector where labour-based technologies have been successfully applied with important impact on employment creation and income generation.

The ILO has been involved in labour-based road rehabilitation and maintenance programmes for more than 20 years, working with governments in over 40countries. These programmes range from small pilot projects to large-scale infrastructure investment programmes, from rural road construction to highway maintenance projects.

Road construction and maintenance have in the past been implemented as public works programmes, using direct labour (people employed by the public works departments). However, most countries are now moving towards private sector execution, involving domestic small-scale contractors to carry out labour-based projects, and local consultants for the design and supervision of the works.

Today's labour-based road programmes not only create jobs, they create productive jobs with good working conditions, and distribute wealth and social benefits. They are also environmentally sound and cost-effective. Comparative studies done by the ILO have shown that without the slightest compromise on quality, the labour-based option is between 10-30% less expensive than conventional equipment-based options, that it reduces foreign exchange requirements by some 50-60%, and for the same investment, creates 2-4 times more employment.

Most governments and financiers cannot afford to ignore such an option, if fully understood, in an era where employment generation and poverty alleviation tally closely with improved efficiency in programme delivery!

The policy environment for labour-based technology development is further described under the ILO's Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) web page on Poverty and Investment Strategies.

Urban Upgrading

Urban poverty

By the year 2015, for the first time in history more people in developing countries will live in urban than in rural areas. The challenge facing the developing world today is to cope with the adverse consequences of rapid urbanization, which include a deteriorating living environment, high unemployment and poverty. Nearly a third of the world’s urban population live in a state of absolute poverty, with the highest incidence of urban poverty found in African cities (The Future of Urban Employment, ILO, 1998). Most of the urban poor live in unplanned settlements, which lack adequate essential services, such as safe drinking water, proper drainage, sanitation, waste management facilities, and access roads.

To fight urban poverty, the creation of productive employment and improved access to productive resources and basic services are essential. Involving communities in the upgrading of their own infrastructure provides both an income to those involved in the construction and maintenance activities and results in improved access to productive resources and basic services for others living within the low-income settlements.

Employment-intensive technology

For many years, the ILO has been promoting productive employment for the poor. The construction sector, where substantial national investment is made in most developing countries, has a great potential to create productive employment. The ILO has developed employment-intensive and labour-based technologies that have successfully been applied in the construction and maintenance of sound infrastructure resulting in the creation of employment. Most urban infrastructure in low-income settlements can be built and maintained using employment-intensive and labour-based technologies, such as:

Community contracting

Governments and City Councils often lack the capacity to provide adequate services to poor settlements. Communities, on the other hand, know the problems and can provide solutions, but often lack organization, know-how, funding and contacts.

Communities can be assisted to organize themselves into Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), representing the interests of the wider community. Through CBOs, communities can be involved in the planning, design, implementation, and maintenance of infrastructure works. This may require training and assistance. One of the advantages of using local labour is that local people are gainfully employed and the acquired skills remain within the community and can be used in maintaining the created assets. In addition, the local peoples capacity to organize themselves is improved and their negotiating skills enhanced.

Governments, City Councils and donors can subcontract certain activities, such as constructing a drain, to a CBO or to a local labour-based contractor. Such contracts develop local capacity, and optimise the use of local labour. These contracts can be developed together with Governments, City Councils, and Communities. ASIST is actively involved in supporting CBOs and in developing community contract documents and methodologies.

Key activities of the ASIST urban infrastructure programme include:

• Providing policy guidance and awareness creation on the use of employment-intensive, labour-based and community managed approaches in urban upgrading
• Developing and disseminating best practices (guidelines) on labour-based community managed urban construction, operation and maintenance
• Mainstreaming the current experiences and integrating the approach in large-scale investment programmes and establishing support units at the country level
• Developing demonstration projects in countries that are not yet familiar with labour-based urban upgrading works
• Networking with other organizations such as UNCHS, WEDC, ITDG, CARE, IHS, IHE, World Bank and consultancy firms
• Developing appropriate technology related to drainage, drinking water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, street pavement etc.
• Developing and facilitating training for urban planners, engineers, site supervisors and communities
• Developing contracting and maintenance guidelines
• Conducting and publishing poverty impact studies
• Developing and disseminating labour policies and practices in community works.

Access interventions

Access interventions are defined by their favourable impact on the need for rural travel and transport. These interventions diminish the socio-economic isolation of the rural population and hence contribute to the reduction of their poverty.

The access needs are met by the appropriate location of services or facilities, the provision of transport infrastructure and rural mobility, and creating an enabling environment for rural travel and transport. The key access interventions may be categorised in the following groups.

Rural Infrastructure Improvement or development of tracks, foot paths and foot bridges; Rehabilitation of selected roads through community participation to a maintainable and safe standard. Rural Transport/Mobility Improvement of efficiency of existing low-cost Intermediate Means of Transport (IMT); Development or introduction of alternative low- cost IMT; Development or introduction of water borne means of transport.

Enabling Environment for Rural Mobility Facilitating credits to purchase IMT e.g. animal drawn carts, bicycles, donkeys; Facilitating transport services by improving their operation and management system and increasing their availability; Providing training for production and maintenance of IMTs.

Accessible Locations and Sites for Facilities and Services

• Installation of water supplies and improvement of sanitation measures;
• Better distribution of rural health centres, schools, etc.;
• Improvement of the system for the supply of agricultural inputs;
• Development of market facilities;
• Improved distribution of grinding mills and their maintenance.

Environmentally Friendly Measures

Interventions that contribute to the improvement of the environment in the rural areas such as the development of woodlots for fuel consumption.

Major achievements on Rural Accessibility Planning and Access Interventions

Pilot projects and research/studies on IRAP carried out in Asia and Africa have led to: A broad understanding of the complexity and seriousness of access and mobility problems in rural areas; An extensive information regarding pattern of rural travel and transport and its burden on the rural households in general and on women and children in particular; Data survey procedure and questionnaires for application at household, village, ward, district, province and national levels; A detailed data base which can be used for rural development planning; Guidelines on IRAP methodology with global application; Guidelines on gender issues in the IRAP; Training manuals on rural infrastructure improvement and maintenance e.g. footpaths, track and footbridges.

The role of the ILO

The International Labour Organization (ILO), in pursuit of its strategies regarding poverty reduction and employment generation, has been providing technical assistance in support of Rural Accessibility. The assistance includes:

• Policy advice and training;
• Needs assessment and project development;
• Research and studies;
• Monitoring and evaluation;
• Technical inputs to universities and training institutions, NGOs and government organisations;
• Advocacy and promotional activities;
• Production and dissemination of information materials.

The ILO has been working in collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Forum for Rural Transport Development (IFRTD), the World Bank, the Government of Netherlands and Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG).

Irrigation Development

Water and Soil Conservation

Sanitation and Waste Management