Road transport is the dominant mode oftransport in sub-Saharan Africa, carrying close to 90percent of the region's passenger and freighttransport, and providing the only access to ruralcommunities where over 70 percent of Africans live. Despitetheir importance, most of the region's nearly 2 millionkm of roads are poorly managed and badly maintained. By1990, nearly a third of the $150 billion invested in roadshad been eroded through lack of maintenance. To restore onlythose roads that are economically justified and preventfurther deteriorations will require annual expenditures ofat least $1.5 billion over the next ten years, or more thandouble the requirements of regular maintenance. To findsustainable solutions to these problems, the United NationsEconomic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the World Banklaunched the Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI) as part ofthe sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP).With support from a number of bilateral donors, theInitiative has spent the last six years working with Africancountries to identify the causes of poor road maintenancepolicies and to develop an agency for reforming them. Thekey concept to emerge from the debate on how to strengthenfinancing and management of roads is commercialiation: bringroads into the marketplace and put them on a fee for servicebasis. However, since roads are and will largely remain apublic monopoly, commercialization requires complementary reforms.
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