AID grant no. 675-0224-G-SS-0038-00 to AFRICARE for the Forecariah farm to market roads program

The project will rehabilitate approximately 171 km of feeder roads and establish a village-based roads maintenance program. Some 27,000 people, in 6 of Forecariah"s 10 subprefectures, are expected to benefit from the project. Under the direction of the Africare Technical Unit, 171 km of Class C roads will be restored to their original condition. Private Guinean contractors will perform the majority of the rehabilitation work, which will follow the existing profile and natural terrain as closely as possible. Maintenance work will be performed by village volunteers living adjacent to the targeted road segments and will consist of activities such as cleaning and repairing drainage facilities, clearing vegetation and cutting grass, and reporting problem areas to the appropriate authorities. Emergency spot maintenance, such as filling potholes and repairing eroded graveled structures, will take first priority. A village maintenance team, consisting of a 5-person core group supervising a 20-person village volunteer group, will be formed for each of the 29 road sectors targeted for rehabilitation and maintenance. Both groups comprising the village maintenance teams will receive training. Core groups, each of which will include at least 1 woman member, will receive technical and on the job training in road maintenance and supervisory techniques. Village volunteer groups will receive 1 week of training, during which each volunteer will be required to maintain 1.5 km of road per day. After their training, village volunteers will be expected to perform voluntary road maintenance as deemed necessary by village road decisionmaking committees. Stipends will be provided to all volunteers who participate in training. Additionally, the core group will receive special training in evaluation techniques and small-scale enterprise skills which will allow them to become small subcontractors for future road work activities. Finally, Africare and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources will semi-annually collect data on crop marketing, transport cost, road traffic, etc. These data will be used to measure overall project impact.