COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION & GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN ROAD MAINTENANCE PROGRAMMES IN KENYA

1. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION & GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN ROAD MAINTENANCE PROGRAMMES IN KENYA By Jane Ndirangu I.T.Transport Ltd.

2. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION & GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN ROAD MAINTENANCE PROGRAMMES IN KENYA Presentation Roads 2000 Maintenance Strategy Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme Challenges & Way forward

3. Roads 2000 STRATEGY • In the early 1990’s the GoK developed a new road improvement and maintenance strategy under a generic name ‘Roads 2000 strategy’. The main objectives of the strategy is achieve sustainable maintenance systems and promote poverty reduction. • In the economic recovery plan (2003), poor infrastructure was identified as an impediment to economic growth. One ofmeasures envisaged to help build and maintain durable quality “standard” roads was: ‘Accelerating the implementation of the Roads 2000 Programme which involves development of rural access roads which will help the poor by improving their mobility’

4. The main features of the Roads 2000 Strategy include: • Lowering the cost of interventions through a network approach to selection of roads, which focuses on the improvement of accessibility of a target area through spot improvement and partial rehabilitation. • An optimum mix of labour and equipment with an emphasis on labour; and • Increased use of local resources, including labour and locally-made tools and equipment.

5. Important aspects of R2000 • All maintainable roads should be maintained as a priority • Public/Private/Local community participation in the Roads sector. • Continuous training for the ‘Ministry’s of Road’ management personnel in both technical and management skills • Train small scale contractors in implementation of works and in business management. • Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme - Improvement Contractors – 30% women and Maintenance Contractors; 50% Vulnerable groups (Women, youth, Physically challenged, People affected by HIV/Aids pandemic). • Stakeholders involvement – District roads committees & ( community road committees in Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme) • Use appropriate works implementation methods -Labour –based/equipment-based

10. Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme Roads 2000 Programme in Nyanza is jointly funded by GOK and Swedish Sida The Nyanza R2000 programme covers 11 of Nyanza’s 12 districts The main objective of the programme is to use the rights based approach to Improve and Maintain the road network in the province

12. PRINCIPLES OF THE RIGHTS BASED APPROACH • Transparency - Information • Accountability- Value for money • Non discrimination – gender, vulnerable groups • Community Participation

13. Community participation • For roads to have an impact on poverty reduction, which is the main objective of the Roads 2000 Strategy, there is a need for the meaningful involvement of the community that is to be served by the road. • Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme - Solution was formation of Community Roads Committees (RC) • The main objectives of the Road Committees are to • Ensure community participation and local ownership; • Promote accountability and transparency in the delivery of public infrastructure, and; • Ensure sustainability of programme benefits. Use existing structures – Department of Gender and social services • Structure • District Roads Committee & District working groups • Division working groups • Roads committees • Prepared guidelines - outlining the ‘Process of Forming these Structures’ and ‘Information Required for Community Sensitisation’ and ensure fair representation of the vulnerable groups

14. District Development Committee District Roads Committee DREDSDO DAO DCO DPHO DLO DO’s Office District Social Dev. Committee WORKING GROUP Divisional Social Dev Committee Location Social Dev. Committee Roads Sub-Committee COMMUNITY Sub-location members Sub-location members Sub-location members Divisional Working group

15. The roles and responsibilities of the RCs are to: • Provide inputs during the planning, implementation and ongoing design of the road in areas where potential conflict of design and community interests arise; • Assist in identification of vulnerable and marginalised groups to ensure that they are recruited as labour; • Monitor progress and provide feedback with respect to engineering and cross cutting issues • Seek technical advice from the Engineer on other roads and paths, which the community can mobilise local and other resources to improve.

18. Challenges • Dependency Syndrome: Though the Community Road Committee appreciate their involvement, there are communities who expects money in return especially for donor-funded projects. • Labour-based works are supervision-intensive: Low supervision capacity in Ministry of Roads • Lack of cross-sectional collaboration with other relevant Ministries in service delivery • The technical personnel lack skills in Social issues • Lack of policy to help integrate social and environmental issues into the road works – Performance contracts

19. WAY FORWARD • Decentralisation - Formation of 3 Roads Authorities • Outsourcing of supervision works- Trialled in Roads 2000 Nyanza Programme. • More cross-sectional collaboration with other stakeholders esp. line Ministries. This collaborations should be formalised and activities included in performance contracts. • Capacity building (Roads2000) • Introduce social & environmental issues skills in the curriculum at the university level • Socio/economist deployed to the regions to liaise with other line ministries

20. A clear road ahead