206
Public Works as a Safety Net
This basic principle implies that wage rates could be set comparing the type of VUP project planned for the sector against the sector’s average market wage rate for unskilled workers doing similar work. In practical terms, this means that • VUP sector staff collect wage cell-level data, • the median is computed at the sector level, and • the median is then used as the benchmark to ensure VUP wage rates in the sector are less than or equal to the sector’s median average market wage rate. At the inception of the VUP public works program in 2008, market wage data were collected on a project-by-project basis. Since 2010, monitoring of market wage rate data has been systematized and is collected quarterly, based on the VUP monitoring and evaluation framework.5 Data are collected for four types of projects and five types of labor as shown in table 8.2. Data at the cell level were first collected independently in November 2009 and then again in July 2010, allowing comparison of data across the sectors in which VUP operates (60 in November 2009 and 90 in July 2010). Table 8.3 summarizes the number of projects for which sectors have reported data for each project type and category of labor. Sectors only report data for the types of project that have been delivered in their respective sector. Rwanda took several challenges into account when setting and monitoring the VUP public works program’s wage rates, including the following. • Availability of data. Challenges still exist regarding timely, comprehensive data, given the limited infrastructure, especially at the village and cell levels. Getting the balance right between the complexity of the data to be collected and the capacity of the local infrastructure to sup-
Table 8.2 Wage Rate Data Monitored for Vision 2020 Umurenge Program Public Works Project type
Labor category
Agricultural/environmental Roads Construction (schools, etc.) Water infrastructure
Ordinary (unskilled) casual labor Mason’s aid Mason Team leader Supervisor