By
Tin Aquino
Every
day, he has to bike for more than two hours or walk for five hours to get to
the nearest market to sell his farm produce and buy essential commodities for
his household. Kebbian Kabombo, a local farmer, lives in a community called
Sopu-Mawawa, 27 km away from Mongu town in Western Province of Zambia. His
shoes are always dusty from the commute, and he can’t earn much despite his
consistent efforts towards a livelihood.
Mongu
is the administrative capital in the Western Province, home to small businesses
and banks. The majority of the population are peasant farmers, and not
considered to be formally employed. Locals like Kebbian spend the majority of
their daily lives on the road, so mobility is key.
Road
projects are especially important in this part of Zambia, which is known –
rather infamously – for having loose sandy soil instead of compact soil. Major
roads in Mongu are paved but are often in bad condition.
Kebbian
is one of a handful of citizens who have volunteered to be community
facilitators for the road monitoring project in the Western Province. Together
with other community facilitators and members, they are seeking to gain access
to ongoing road construction contracts and provide useful feedback to the local
government and local officers of the Roads Development Agency on how these
contracts are being implemented.
With
guidance from Zambian CSO network Civil
Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Kebbian’s main duty is to organize
citizens who live around selected roads and administer a community scorecard,
so that the community’s feedback can reach local authorities. The hope is that
this initiative makes the lives of farmers like Kebbian better, even if that
means cutting of the time it takes to get to town by only a few minutes.
This
initiative in Mongu is one of several nascent efforts to actively involve local
communities – who are the real owners and users of the roads – in the
implementation of road projects.
For more information on the World Bank’s Good
Governance in Roads Project in Zambia, click
here.
Source: http://www.open-contracting.org
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