118
Public Works as a Safety Net
This is more easily done when communities have been engaged in the project selection, and technical support is devoted to carrying out the maintenance work. In a review of 60 infrastructure projects in Madagascar, sustainability issues were found in 15 (Van Imschoot 2006). Most assets (primarily some heavily used roads) were not being adequately maintained. This neglect can be attributed in large part to the lack of a sense of local ownership of the projects, since community involvement in project planning and design was not actively sought (e.g., as in the Morocco public works project). Even where local communities are involved in maintenance, a lack of resources tends to prevent them from maintaining project assets. In fact, in most projects, no practical arrangements were put in place to ensure maintenance, nor were beneficiaries assigned responsibility for that task. In the Zambia public works program, no framework for periodic maintenance of secondary and tertiary roads by the community or local authorities was established. The roads and bridges constructed have not yet been mapped and gazetted, and there are no arrangements in place to ensure that this will happen. These facilities need to be comprehensively mapped, inspected, and gazetted in order for government to maintain and rehabilitate them in the future. No efforts were made by the government to assist communities in setting up local maintenance committees that could draw money from a road maintenance fund to ensure sustainability. While communities were given some training in asset maintenance, they are unlikely to engage in systematic maintenance without adequate financial provision and some guidance. In Afghanistan, most public works projects were roads. Significant benefits ensued following the construction of roads, including a decrease in travel time and costs. Unfortunately, however, the constructed roads are already beginning to deteriorate because of lack of maintenance. In the Arab Republic of Egypt, the public works program under the Social Fund for Development began to address maintenance problems in 1999 by requesting that “sponsoring agencies� (governorates) deposit 10 percent of total project costs up front for maintenance purposes in a separate bank account, matched by an additional 10 percent from the fund. This was based on best practice experiences from other social investment funds in other parts of the world. However, these funds were rarely accessed due to the inability of governorates to prepare adequate maintenance plans. This suggests that even in cases where adequate financial planning and provisions are made, there is no guarantee that maintenance work will be undertaken. In 2004, tripartite arrangements