According to the Report, the 11 year civil war in Sierra Leone adversely affected the road infrastructure and this further hindered government’s abilities to secure funds for the construction/rehabilitation/maintenance of roads in the country.
Upon the assumption of office by His Excellency the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma’s government the Report went on, the Agenda for Change and Agenda for Prosperity focus greatly on the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of trunks, feeder and township roads across the country.
It went on to say the massive improvements in the road infrastructures continue to positively impact on the lives of citizens in Sierra Leone, adding that R4D-SL assessment exercise is therefore geared towards an effective way to identify the potential successes and challenges in the road sector infrastructural development in Sierra Leone over five years, educate citizens on the ownership and protection of the road infrastructures, promote road safety education and awareness raising among citizens especially school children and other road users, engage policy makers for the formulation and implementation of relevant policies geared towards promotion and protection of road infrastructure including road safety across the country and identify the gaps in road sector development and advocate for the closure of these gaps.
Field monitoring visits, interviews, desk review, witnessed launching of Road projects and meetings were the following methodologies used during the development of the Report.
In key assessment findings in Sierra Leone, the Report identified three major types of construction entities also known as contractors that are fully participating in road works across the country and these include foreign/international construction companies, indigenous/local construction companies and individuals/project based contractors.
According to the Report, R4D-SL is very impressed with Government of Sierra Leone ability to pay compensations to people and communities affected by the Road constructions. “We continue to witness many of such compensation payments to communities in different locations across the country. Our consortium had seen payment made to people in all Roads Construction communities. This according to the Sierra Leone Road Authority is to further encourage the communities to fully cooperate with the contractors during the works period. Such payments are also parts of the GOSL additional Funding supports to the entire cost of the Road Works.”
