Burundi - Road Sector Development Project

The objective of the project is to contribute to Burundi's post-war revival by restoring part of the priority road network, generating employment for the rural poor and improving institutional capacity in the road sector. The project has the following five components. Component 1) This component will help restore part of the existing primary road network either destroyed by the war or deteriorated from years of no maintenance. It will include: (a) the rehabilitation of 161.8 km of the 1,100 km of the paved primary road network, linking major cities, production areas and neighboring countries, and protection works on the River Rusizi embankments; (b) spot repairs on national roads Nos. 1, 5, and 7, linking the city of Bujumbura with the rest of the country. Component 2) will help rehabilitate some 350 km of unpaved secondary and communal roads, principally in agricultural production areas. Component 3) will support a new approach to road maintenance that involves road side communities, and will include: (a) Provision of financial and technical support to a three year pilot program of labor-intensive routine road maintenance; (b) Provisions of financial and technical support to a three year program of mechanized routine maintenance works; c) Provision of 600 road maintenance kits, and 60 bicycles to members of 60 Associations of Community Development (ACDs), and three motorcycles to local consultants for routine maintenance supervision; (d) Provision of spare parts for road maintenance equipment to ALM, road laboratory equipment to LNBTP, information technology (IT) equipment; (e) Provision of technical and financial support for the identification, counseling, and training of ACDs responsible for road maintenance and management. Component 4) will include provision of financial and technical support to agencies involved in the road sector, specifically in the following: (a) Implementation of a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for road sector planning and the supervision of private sector-led road works; (b) Implementation of the Government's divestiture program; (c) Implementation of the road sector policy and regional transport dialogue; (d) Training of sector staff in road planning and analysis, road works execution and management; Component 5) This component will finance 9% of project cost of which 2% will be operating cost and 2% the refund of the PPF used for project preparation. It will include the provision of financial and technical support to agencies involved in project preparation, implementation and evaluation.