Best Practices

Better Roads- life Line for Development

A sound transport system is a prerequisite for the socio-economic development and consolidation of a nation. The free movement of people, utilization of natural resources, improved agricultural production and market condition, access to social facilities, land utilization and sustainable growth, all need roads as a catalyst.

Roads provide the only means of access to most of the rural communities and effective management of this asset is of vital importance to the government's strategy for economic development and poverty reduction.  The government gives priority to the transport sector because of its strong and direct bearing on rural development and production.

The government’s broad policy for the transport sector is to promote the provision of cost effective, efficient, safe and environmentally friendly transport services to support increased agricultural and industrial production, trade, tourism and social and administrative services. It is evident that, as agriculture is the leading sector in the economy, roads in general will play almost a pivotal role in providing access to potential productive areas and markets.

Therefore, development efforts to change the existing socio-economic conditions of the country would also be dependent on the efficiency of this sector for the foreseeable future.

In a country the size of Ethiopia, an adequate infrastructure, in terms of both coverage and quality, and a well functioning transport system are essential conditions for the much sought economic and social development.

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) is the legally autonomous agency responsible for the management of the county's roads.

The authority was established by proclamation No. 115/1951 as an autonomous public agency under the name Imperial Highway Authority.

            In order to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness, the ERA has been renamed three times and substantially reformed six times by law in its history. According to articles in Proclamation No. 80/1997, the ERA is re-established with the objective to develop and administer highways, to ensure the standard of road construction and to create a proper condition on which a coordinated road network enhancement is promoted. The proclamation further stipulated that truck and major link roads which makeup the federal road network system are administered by the ERA.

In 1951, when the Ethiopian Roads Authority was established, the total road network amounted to 6,400 km. This network was built mainly during the Italian invasion. By 1974 when the Derg assumed power the road network had grown to 9,260 km, of which 3,360 km were paved. The network had increased to 19,017 km of classified roads by 1991(When the current Government Assumed power), of which 4,109 were paved. The increase over these years was mainly due to the expansion of the rural road network to facilitate relief operation activities to drought and famine affected areas in the 1970s and 1980s.

Road transport is the dominant mode and accounts for more than 95 percent of motorized inter-urban freight and passenger movements. Yet, Ethiopia has to its size and population a very limited road network.

Currently, there is only about 36,496 km of road, relatively small in size and which is hampering economic development especially in the rural areas. The overall condition of the classified network is also poor; currently only 37 percent are identified to be in good condition. The government, in recognition of the crucial role the road sector plays for the economic development of the country; has set out a Road Sector Development Program (RSDP) to speed up the improvement and expansion of the road network. The program providers a comprehensive approach of integrating the implementation of key road investments with major policy and institutional reforms. The objective of the RSDP is therefore to restore Ethiopia's road network, which has become an obstacles to the sustainability of the economic development program, and to devolve institutional capacity of the road agencies to properly manage the networks.

The RSDP is scheduled over a period of ten years (1997-2007) and is divided into two phases (RSDP I and RSDP II). The First phase of the RSDP ended in June 2002; the on -going RSDP II stretches over the period 2002-2007. Various donors including the World Bank, European Union, ADB,NDF, BADEA,OPEC Fund, Governments of Japan, Germany, U.K., Ireland, Sweden. The Road Fund and the Government of Ethiopia have been committed to the Program implementation through provision of the required funding. Recently, the Saudi Development Fund has also joined in financing the RSDP. Other donors are also expected to join in providing financial and technical support for this multifaceted program. By the end of RSDP II, the total road network of the country is expected to reach about 39557 km. Substantial improvements in this direction would contribute to development in every sector of the Economy.

 RSDP I

Consistent with the broad objective of RSDP (i.e. to restore the road network to acceptable condition), the main target of the phase of the program was to increase the road density to 0.49 km. per   1,000 population and 27 km per 1,000 km 2  and to augment the proportion of road network in good condition to 35%. Accordingly, during RSDP I a total of 8,636 km of roads and 600 km are newly constructed regional roads. A total of Birr 7.1 billion was disbursed up to June 2002 for the purpose.

 Comparing planned vs. actual; the overall disbursement rate up to June 2002 was 77%, whilst the corresponding physical accomplishment was 88% of the planned.

The total classified road network has increased by about 40% over this period; much of the increase, 107%, in the regional roads. As a result, the proportion of the areas that were assumed to be more than half a day walk from an all-weather-road in 1996 have been reduced. Further, the maintenance effort and the few completed section of road rehabilitation projects has improved the condition of the network increasing the proportion of road in good condition from 21% in 1995 to 30% in 2002. All in all, RSDP I increased the road density to 30 km per 1000 km2  and 0.49 km per 1000 population. 

RSDP II

Program Objectives: The primary objective of RSDP II is to restore and expand Ethiopia's road network,

Which have become on obstacle and major impediment to sustainability of the economic development program. Parallel to this, the program has been developed to assist in strengthening the management and technical capacity of domestic construction industry. In addition, RSDP addresses a variety of social objectives including road safety, environmental protection, and HIV/ AIDS prevention and mitigation.

Program Target: The physical target in terms of road condition is to have, by 2007, 45 percent of the roads in good condition (from 30% in 2002). Also the program aims at selectively constructing new roads to have 36-km/1000km2 including low -class roads and to install regular maintenance on much of the Ethiopia road network. In addition, the road network in terms of density per 1000 population is expected to be 0.50/1000 populations in 2007. As road is lifeline for development all stake holders consider it priority of all priorities.