Best Practices

Newsletter 13

Accessible Roads Catalize Development

In an effort to bring about the  desired socio-economic development, priority has been given to the road sector, crucial in realizing speedy economic growth.  Besides, road development plays key role in good governance and poverty eradication effort the nation has embarked upon.

As inland transport is the major means of transport in Ethiopia, the relevance and share of road transport in Ethiopia is significant.  In the context of Ethiopia's geography, pattern of settlement and economic activity, it is needless to say that such a means of transport plays a crucial role in facilitating economic development.  The need for people to move, utilization of natural resources, improved agricultural production     and market condition, access to     social facilities,  land   utilization   and sustainable growth, all require road transport as a catalyst.

Even though road transport is the lifeline of the economy of Ethiopia, relevant institutions were not organized in a manner suitable to undertake the required road construction.  Road construction, though started in Ethiopia during the reign of Minilik II, road networks remained quite limited even by African standards.

In the history of Ethiopia, much of the roads which were specially built during the 1936 - 41 Italian occupation were aimed at consolidating the fascist rule.  By 1941, there were about 7,000 kilometers of roads.  After liberation, road construction and maintenance stagnated because of lack of funds, equipment and expertise.  Some roads can't even be utilized all the time owing to the fact that they were not all-weather routes and were dilapidated.

After the establishment of  the Imperial Highway in 1951, development of Ethiopia's high way was revitalized.  But then, the progress couldn't meet the minimum standard.

During the Dergue regime road development schemes were unthinkable except for those feeder roads leading to some military training centers.

This shortcoming had tragic consequences during the 1984 - 85 famine, when the lack of good roads contributed to Ethiopia's inability to distribute handouts and/or food aid to draught affected areas.  And as a result, a number of people had perished.

In both regimes the existence of inadequate and poorly maintained rural and feeder roads constitutes an important gap in rural development.  If we compare to that the road development over the past 14 years, there is a remarkable difference.  Prior to 1991 the construction of main roads did not only stagnate but upgrading and maintenance were also unthinkable.  Little or no attention was given to the debilitating effect of failure in road building up until 1991.  Road transport was the means of movement for about 93 percent of freight and 95 percent of all passengers.

In 1992 there were only 18,081 kilometers of road of which only 15 percent were in good state.  Put together, other than the 13,000 kilometers of all-weather and gravel roads by and large concentrated in and around the city of Addis Ababa, there were only 4,900 kilometers of rural roads.   By contrast, substantial parts of the country lacked all-weather connections while being left out of the main road network.

Since 1991, road development has been high on the agenda of the government.  The government, besides constructing new roads, extending and connecting feeder roads with the main system, has been engaged in constructing rural roads outside the main system in all regions of the country, breaking the taboo of concentrating road networks in central, eastern and northern highlands.

With a steady growth of all types of roads over the past 14 years, the total network has now reached over 185,000 kilometers.  On top of this, road maintenance and rehabilitation was given due attention.

This increment has enabled to lower the accessibility of road in every part of Ethiopia from 30 to 15 kilometers.

Cognizant of the fact that development and economic development are impossible without roads, the government in 1997 devised a ten-year Road Sector Development Program /RSDP/.  The program aims at:

• Improving transport and minimizing transport cost;

• Enabling the rural population get access to transportation and opening up areas with unexploited resources;

• Improving the capacity of building and maintaining road and

• Supporting efforts geared toward poverty reduction.

The program was launched with a very significant donor support to create adequate capacity in the road sector, and to facilitate the economic recovery process through the restoration of essential road network.

The first five-year program (RSDP I), 1997 - 2002, was officially launched in September 1997, and has been completed in 2002.

While the second on-going phase (2002 - 2007) aims at consolidating the achievements in the first phase, it also envisages to increasing the network connectivity in addition to providing a sustainable road infrastructure to rural areas.  Now, eight years have passed since the launch of the RSDP.

According to Samson Wondimu, Head of the Public Relations Department with the Ethiopian Roads Authority /ERA/, 14,536 kilometers of road network construction was undertaken over the past eight years at a cost of over 15 billion birr. 

Of the total physical works registered so far, 5,827Km (or 40%) road works have been undertaken during the second phase of RSDP II over a period of three years (July 2002 - July 2005).  Specifically, during this period, 1,571 Km of roads were rehabilitated and upgraded; 208Kms of road were constructed; emergency /heavy maintenance was carried out on 2,360 Km of asphalt and gravel roads.  When compared to the planned target of the three year rehabilitation and upgrading and construction works, implementation rates stand at about 100.6 and 102.9 percent, respectively. 

   Table 1: Road Development/1997 - 2005/ 

Expectations are that road networks at the national level have to be in consonance with the development demand of the country.  In a nutshell, the recent road network development has been instrumental in improving road conditions and stabilize freight and public transport tariff.  Moreover, the construction of these networks has increased road links between rural areas, villages and access to market centers.

Urban centers were also beneficiaries of the road sector development as the rural ones.  The government strongly believes that the road transport development is vital   for the overall socio-economic development of Ethiopia. 

The successful completion of the road sector program is a major stride in Ethiopia's effort to realize the highly sought after economic progress while at the same time successfully achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's).