Promoting Policy Reforms for Effective Transport Services in COMESA Countries
SSATP, UNECA, and the World Bank
Concerned by the poor state of the road network in most of its member countries, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has been promoting reforms to help regional integration for effective transport services. COMESA has taken an interest in the Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI), which has been working with nine pilot countries, five of which are within the COMESA area, on ways to make road maintenance sustainable. Twelve COMESA countries were reviewed. Two issues were clear: 1) the twelve countries geographical diversity directly affected transport; and 2) the country road networks are at different stages of development. The study indicated the need for better traffic management in general, and specifically to face up to the growing congestion problem in the capital cities.