This paper reports on a study in South Kivu Province in the DRC, which is part of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) research programme. The programme in the DRC includes two surveys in years 2012 and 2015. The surveys explore people’s views about the legitimacy of the state and how these are influenced by livelihoods status, access to social services and different types of service arrangements. The paper further includes in-depth research on the governance of the health sector, on the construction of livelihoods of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the urban context and an explorative study on the effects of road construction and reconstruction, as well as transport, on rural livelihoods.
Key findings:
- The rehabilitation of roads in DRC is expected to increase mobility and access to markets, connect supply and demand, decrease transportation costs, enhance economic growth and help people move out of poverty. The World Bank links the agricultural recovery witnessed between 2006 and 2010 to the rehabilitation of rural roads, which started between 2001 and 2005.
- The findings from this study should sober these expectations. Indeed, road rehabilitation has a positive effect on mobility and availability of products. Increased access to transport has boosted production of brick and other supplies for the construction industry, and it has brought some economic dynamism, especially on market days, to central villages along the road. Overall, however, the use of roads is limited. Expected effects on prices have not been observed.
- The effects of road construction may be visible only on the long term. Even though roads are not being used frequently, and many people never make use of motorised transport, the assessment of the respondents of the importance of the (re)construction of the road is highly positive. Roads appear to have a strong symbolic meaning. They denote state building as well as a sense of development and dynamism.
- Rather than becoming a driver of the economy, the study observed that prevailing poverty and governance conditions restrict the possibilities for enhancing transport by road. There continues to be little demand for motorised transport, and the number of movements over the roads are low. Transport appears to be mainly a self-governed sector of small entrepreneurs. Conditions seem to be lacking to boost the sector’s efficiency gains.
- On the contrary, as in other economic sectors, profit margins are reduced because of many informal taxes and levies. The low number of movements, coupled with the lack of effective taxation, jeopardise the gains that are being made in the construction of roads. Funds for road maintenance are not accumulating at a high-enough rate to warrant adequate maintenance. Considering the humid climate and mountainous nature of South Kivu, road maintenance is a major issue. Roads rehabilitated in the previous decade under humanitarian schemes are ready observed to be deteriorating.
- In post-conflict areas or weak states and recovering economies, more attention thus must be given to creating funds for road maintenance. This must take into account that possibly many years may pass before motorised road use reaches the threshold where motorway taxation can cover the needs for road maintenance. Little attention has been paid to developing governance for the transport sector, notwithstanding the large sums invested in road rehabilitation in post-conflict societies. Donors investing in roads may become more active in leveraging effective governance for taxation, safety issues and creating an enabling environment for a thriving transport sector where economies of scale can be applied, where positive incentives exist for re-investing profits in the sector, and where cars slowly become less dilapidated. This would eventually bring down the price of freight transport.
- Systematic attention must be paid to self-governance in the transport sector. Self-governance does not stop during conflict, and the transport associations are strong and provide a high level of organisation of the sector. Investigation is needed into the precise roles of these associations and their effect on prices for transport.The effects of roads on security are diversified and require monitoring to establish effects in specific contexts. Finally, many of the findings in South Kivu on rural mobility, organisation of the transport sector, sustainability, governance and taxation are not very different from the findings by, for example, the African Community Access Programme in other sub-Saharan countries and are not specific to conflict-affected countries. The impacts of continuing insecurity on mobility and transport on road rehabilitation in South Kivu will require additional study, over a longer period of time. The next stage of research planned is a follow-up assessment of the same areas in 2015.
