@article{Tesfaye:251890,
      recid = {251890},
      author = {Tesfaye, Teklu},
      title = {Labour-Intensive Rural Roads in Kenya, Tanzania and  Botswana: Some Evidence on Design and Practice},
      journal = {Ethiopian Journal of Economics},
      address = {1994},
      number = {683-2016-46807},
      series = {ETHIOPIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS},
      year = {1994},
      abstract = {Labor - intensive road programs in Kenya Tanzania, and  Botswana share a great deal of common features, The  programs are by and large experimental and donor supported.  They are small in terms of their share in total road  networks and employment. They promote the twin goals of  improving access roads and generating employment.  Employment is open to all working adults. Wages are time  rated, administratively determined, and uniform. But real  wages vary across time and space, and, consequently, labor  supply responses vary accordingly. Implementation of road  works rests largely on public institutions, but with  minimum community involvement. (Except for provision of  local labor).The evolution of the programs in the 1970s and  1980s shows a pattern of convergence among the three  programs in design and implementation practices. The road  programs are shifting towards road maintenance, where unit  cost of outputs is lower and share of labor cost is higher  as compared to road construction and improvement. Such a  shift promises a greater and more stable employment, and an  increase in share of labor income. Tanzania and Botswana  are approaching Kenya in their evolution to wards a  consolidation of their road programs into a national  planning framework, and setting standard guidelines and  procedures in identification, implementation, and  monitoring of road works. Kenya's current experiment on  alternative low-cost technologies for road works (project  2000) marks an important advance that will soon have an  impact on these other countries.The sustenance of these  programs depends on how much they progress towards self  sustenance and cost-efficiency. And as the evidence from  Kenya shows, such progression needs to take into account  the potential for these programs to contribute to  short-term poverty reduction through asset creation with a  minimum adverse effect on long-term growth. Policy makers  have an important role in translating these insights and  knowledge into improved policy design. Since government has  and important role in such an experimental and translation  process, it is crucial that it overcomes its current  ambivalence forwards labor-intensive public works schemes.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/251890},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.251890},
}