Employment impact assessment of the Zambian Great North Road Upgrading (GNRU) project

For a summary of the report and its main findings, please see the Information Brief.

The European Union (EU) is supporting Zambia’s Great North Road Upgrading (GNRU) project via its External Investment Plan (EIP). The project aims at fostering regional integration by expanding intra-Africa trade, strengthening growth, and reducing the time and cost of transport along the corridor.

An ex-ante assessment of the employment impacts of the GNRU project is carried out by conducting simulations using the ILO’s Structural Model for Sustainable Development (SMSD). The model builds on the data and structure of the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) produced jointly by the ILO and the Zambia Statistic Agency (ZamStats) and it contains detailed information on production, income generation and distribution and use of products.

The simulation is conducted to assess the temporary employment impact of the implementation (construction) of the project as well as the permanent employment impacts generated by the expansion of transport sector capacity as the result of the GNRU project.