Improving human resource capacity for road network preservation

Abstract

There is compelling evidence that a significant factor contributing to the poor condition of much of Africa's rural road network is inadequate human resource capacity. This shortage of professional skills in road engineering inhibits proper management of road networks leading inter alia, to many hundreds of millions of Rands being incurred as excess road user costs by the populace, as well as greatly increased risk of road crashes. For more than fifty years, since 1952, the South African Road Federation has been active in the development of human resource capacity in the roads field and currently holds more than thirty courses annually on many aspects of road engineering and management directed towards improving the road network. SARF has held more than 210 courses since 1960 with more than 12 000 delegates having attended these courses. (SARF archives). This paper examines the extent and consequences of this lack of capacity in respect of the preservation of the road network in general, and in relation to this conference, road asset management systems in particular. It also describes the actions of the SARF over decades in attempting to assist in resolving this issue.