Young people take the lead in the provision of infrastructure in Hopley
The name, Hopley may conjure some positive feelings, however, the daily realities for its estimated 200 000 residents is far from bearable. The residential area, one of the new settlements on the outskirts of Harare faces a huge infrastructure backlog. The roads remain inaccessible, getting clean water is a daily challenge and a few households have electricity. Huge segments of the population struggle to get education and training or access health care when in need.
1 June 2017
(ILO News) Harare: Young people in Hopley are particularly vulnerable. A recent study by the City of Harare, United Nations Population Fund and the ILO, has established that up to 70 percent of young women are not in school nor employment. The few young people that are economically active, are engaged in highly precarious informal activities, with the skills they are using being mainly self-taught. On the health front, young people have poor outcomes with only 15 percent of the girls reporting having used a condom in their last sexual encounter.
The current state of the access roads in Hopley
Led by the City of Harare, with support from the the ILO and UNFPA, efforts are underway to support the community with a demonstration of how a low volume access road can be developed in a manner that provides young people with an opportunity to acquire new skills, earn an income and improve roads using low-cost technology as well as locally available materials.
Using labour-based methods for road works has been an important part of the strategy to improve rural transport infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past thirty years. Cobblestone paving makes perfect sense for Harare’s burgeoning urban roads. It is labour-intensive, creating jobs and opportunities for construction entrepreneurs. It uses natural and local materials that are plentiful – contributing to lowering the country’s trade deficit and carbon footprint. It is also cost-effective when compared to concrete and asphalt roads, easy to maintain and has a much longer lifespan.
Moreover, it is easy to replicate across the city where there is an estimated backlog of access roads to the value of USD 5 billion, as a result of the growth in the cooperative model for new residential property development. With the City of Harare currently struggling to maintain its road network; the cobblestone approach is strategic, because it transfers knowledge on road works to the local community that will be useful for future maintenance.
For this project, the ILO has provided technical training for the young people in cobblestone technology at St Peters Kubatana Vocational Training Centre. This approach has also presented an opportunity for the Vocational Training Centre and the Roads Training Centre practical knowledge and skills to be able to offer the same course in the future. Work on the access road will generate a total of 4200 work days, benefiting about 70 young people – 56 per cent being young women and 10 artisans. This intervention, anticipated to be completed in August 2017, has in addition created green jobs because the work opportunities created are contributing to the preservation of the environment. The stones used to pave the road are waste material from cement production processes from Lafarge, a local cement making company contributing to efforts to minimize waste and pollution.
The work in Hopley has proved that young people can also contribute to the provision of key services. It has also demonstrated how complex development issues can be tackled through public-private partnerships at low cost. The work has benefitted from cement and other material and technical support from Lafarge, who are supporting the community they operate in to ensure economic growth occurs, in the context of social progress and environmental protection.
Led by the City of Harare, with support from the the ILO and UNFPA, efforts are underway to support the community with a demonstration of how a low volume access road can be developed in a manner that provides young people with an opportunity to acquire new skills, earn an income and improve roads using low-cost technology as well as locally available materials.
Using labour-based methods for road works has been an important part of the strategy to improve rural transport infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past thirty years. Cobblestone paving makes perfect sense for Harare’s burgeoning urban roads. It is labour-intensive, creating jobs and opportunities for construction entrepreneurs. It uses natural and local materials that are plentiful – contributing to lowering the country’s trade deficit and carbon footprint. It is also cost-effective when compared to concrete and asphalt roads, easy to maintain and has a much longer lifespan.
Moreover, it is easy to replicate across the city where there is an estimated backlog of access roads to the value of USD 5 billion, as a result of the growth in the cooperative model for new residential property development. With the City of Harare currently struggling to maintain its road network; the cobblestone approach is strategic, because it transfers knowledge on road works to the local community that will be useful for future maintenance.
The work in Hopley has proved that young people can also contribute to the provision of key services. It has also demonstrated how complex development issues can be tackled through public-private partnerships at low cost. The work has benefitted from cement and other material and technical support from Lafarge, who are supporting the community they operate in to ensure economic growth occurs, in the context of social progress and environmental protection.