Agricultural marketing development

The evaluation covered the periods 9/79-5/86 and 9/81-5/86, respectively, and was based on document review, site visits, and interviews with project and USAID/Z personnel. Due to procurement problems, especially in regard to spare parts, and a lack of engineering direction, especially given the area"s difficult, sandy soil, project 0026 has built only 73 of the targeted 364 km of road. In 5/86, however, USAID/Z engaged a graduate civil engineer with a specialty in soils mechanics who has instituted measures to deal with the soil problems. USAID/Z has also hired a part-time procurement/equipment specialist with unique talents in breaking parts flow logjams. (The Mission will hire such an expert full-time under project 0105, slated to begin in late 1986.) Project 0026 now appears to be on track and should attain its road improvement objectives on time. In the other project area, plans for building two ports have been finalized (after years of delay), and the construction contract should be awarded within 2 months. Road construction under project 0028 should start in early 1987. Two of the three TA team members are in place, and the third is available when needed. Equipment should be onsite in 1/87. The Project Engineer and the Zaire Roads Bureau (ZRB) are searching for a way to gravel the project road within budgetary constraints instead of using the clay-sand standard specified in the Project Paper. This desirable alternative will be rejected, however, if it requires further A.I.D. funds. The road construction training center in Lubumbashi has been functioning for 3 years and has more than doubled its goal of training 200 personnel annually. Development of the engineering section requires continued A.I.D. funding for TA; this will come out of project 0105. It was not initially apparent to USAID/Z and the ZRB that road building in Zaire requires qualified, onsite engineering direction even for seemingly unsophisticated dirt roads, and that such engineers are not available in Zaire. Engineering skills therefore had to be provided through TA. (In regard to equipment maintenance and operation, by contrast, qualified Zairian personnel are increasingly available.) Another lesson learned is that any substantial road building in Zaire should rely not on used but on new equipment (as USAID/Z is now doing) and should also set up an effective spare parts system, establishment of which requires qualified TA.