Programme description

Title: Strengthening of institutional and management capacity in the road sector
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Namibia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication (MWTC)
Overall term: July 2004 to June 2013

Context

The Namibian Government carried out a reform of the transport sector at the end of the 1990s. The legal framework was refined, and modern structures were created to finance, plan and organise the associated tasks. In the road subsector, a key component of this reform was the switch to user financing as well as commercialising road construction and maintenance services by creating three parastatal authorities: the Road Fund Administration, Roads Authority and Road Contractors Company. The Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication (MWTC) was streamlined to perform more efficiently. Although reform in the transport sector has generated the necessary political framework, the sector still lacks fully functional institutional structures. Furthermore, the transport sector is insufficiently organised and there are deficiencies in the financing of the road network. The productivity of personnel is also in need of improvement.

Objective

Planning, organisation and financing in the road sector are carried out with economically sustainable and socially balanced principles.

Approach

The programme accompanies the change processes that result from the reform and supports the consolidation of the transport policy framework. While the main focus is on cooperation with the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication at the same time other organisations in the sector are involved, creating a diverse executing structure. The programme has two components:

• improving the framework for consolidating reform in the road transport sector
• improving the capacities and development of human resources in the road transport sector

By providing consultancy on policies, processes and organisation together with training measures, the aim is to improve the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication’s productivity and management capacity and consolidate sector reform. Parastatal institutions, various consultancy and monitoring agencies, associations and the local polytechnic institute are to be strengthened in their respective roles and services.

Results achieved so far

The programme participates in the Namibian Government’s road safety campaigns and supports the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund. For example, in one campaign during Christmas 2007 the programme financed the recording of a ‘road safety song’ which was broadcast on the radio and TV. The call for improved road safety led to a decrease in the number of fatal accidents by roughly 30 percent compared to the previous year.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the construction sector were registered in a market survey, creating a database of SMEs. Based on this, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) is able to organise its range of services according to needs of these enterprises and find new members. In addition, the data provides important information for a planned nationwide classification of businesses.

Road sector reform entails extensive restructuring of the relevant institutions. Numerous training measures were offered to enhance the professional skills of the Ministry’s employees. For example, in one training session on change management around thirty department heads learned how they could better work with the new institutional framework and apply it to their daily operations.

To improve the MWTC’s institutional productivity, employees’ tasks and roles were analysed and defined as a first step. Around fifty employees took part in training sessions on designing and monitoring job descriptions.

An intranet was developed with the goal of supporting the Ministry’s internal knowledge management. A key component is a document management system for transport sector records. The employees are now able to make decisions based on the information in an electronic database. As not all employees have access to a computer as yet, four common intranet workstations have been set up.

The Polytechnic of Namibia and the Aachen University of Applied Sciences have entered into a university partnership. The Aachen University of Applied Sciences is making a significant contribution to developing specific curricula for a degree programme in civil engineering geared towards international requirements. In addition, the exchange programme with instructors from Aachen helps to relieve personnel shortages at the Polytechnic, as German professors hold approximately three block lectures there each year. Furthermore, German and Namibian students take part in an exchange programme in which annually about ten students go abroad for a semester. These measures are intended to make the degree programme more attractive to prospective students and thus contribute to increasing the number of civil engineers and qualified road construction workers in Namibia.