Ethiopia

PHOTO 15.2

Community mobilization for road-water harvesting in Amhara, Ethiopia

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program’s momentum. The program led to a “success breeds success” effect as improved access to water encouraged experimentation with new crops (fruit trees) and new land management methods.

The roads-for-water activities were implemented in Tigray beginning in 2014 and spread to other states in Ethiopia beginning in 2015 (in particular, the states of amhara, Oromia, and southern nations, nationalities, and People’s Region). The measures consisted of floodwater spreaders from road surfaces, flow dividers at culverts, infiltration trenches parallel to or perpendicular to road alignments, and storage ponds and recharge ponds supplied by the runoff guided by road bodies. These measures quickly gained in popularity and, beginning in 2016, accounted for 25 percent of all the measures undertaken under the watershed campaigns. about 1,670,000 people were involved in the campaigns from 2016–2018. Based on a full 40-day engagement per person (Yaron 2018), this is equivalent to mobilizing 66.8 million labor days.

Bangladesh: Labor contracting societies working on road development

Labor contracting societies (LCss) were developed in Bangladesh in the 1980s. LCss were intended to create labor opportunities for landless and marginal farmers (owning less than 0.2 hectares) in the construction and maintenance of small infrastructure. To facilitate this form of community engagement, the

Public Procurement act, 2008, and Public Procurement Rule, 2008, endorsed “direct contracts” with LCss. The concept is to bypass conventional works-contracting methods to facilitate the involvement of local people so that low-income individuals can benefit directly from development projects. The LCss are usually groups of 50 ultra-poor and landless farmers, either male or female, for whom this income opportunity is very important. a public procurement entity, such as the Local Government Engineering department in the case of local roads, has a legal mandate to enter into such contracts with groups of local people to help alleviate poverty.

The LCs groups are largely self-selected and present themselves directly to the contract-issuing authority. The criteria for membership are age (18–50 years), fitness, local residence, and interest in joining the LCs. Each group has an executive committee. Remuneration is sufficient to provide an attractive opportunity for the poorest in the lean agricultural season. The work to be done under LCss is identified by the contracting authority through a prework assessment. next, a work order is prepared for the LCs based on the estimated volume of work. The standard rates for construction work apply as determined periodically for every region of the country. The payment to the LCs is made in the same manner as for other contractors, that is, an advance payment followed by installments. The final payment is based on a postwork assessment in which the actual volume of work is calculated. a security deposit is also taken from the LCs, which is paid back when all work under the contract has been completed. Payment is made to the bank account of the LCs, from which individual members are paid based on their contribution to the work.

Large volumes of work have been completed under several LCs programs in Bangladesh, and the LCs formula has placed money in the hands of the poor who have typically used the money to acquire household economic assets, such as cows or goats for fattening. In road building, equipment was also made available that facilitated the work and enhanced its quality, such as compact rollers and wheelbarrows. smooth implementation of LCs activities hinges on several factors:

• Transparent and objective selection of landless and marginal farmers as group members • Prevention of contract capture by local contractors who then engage outside labor and mechanical equipment • Timely issuance of work orders so that work can be comfortably undertaken outside the monsoon season or the peak season for agricultural labor demand • accurate prework assessments that prevent major postwork discrepancies that could lead to payment deductions, which are likely to disturb relationships among the LCs members • smooth handling of all payments, including the return of the security deposit

Nepal: Involving road maintenance groups in mountain road maintenance

since about 2005, nepal has undertaken an ambitious road-building program that raised its road coverage above the average of neighboring countries. To ensure the sustainability of these roads, which are often in very challenging terrain, RMGs were formed in several parts of the country (photo 15.3). The functioning of these groups is formalized in several guidelines. RMG activities