Reforming the roads sector in Uganda: a six-year retrospective

This paper seeks to evaluate reforms of the institutional framework governing the national road network in Uganda following an earlier study of the ‘CrossRoads’ programme commissioned in 2009 (Booth and Golooba-Mutebi, 2009). Positive changes are attributed to increased public spending on roads and various measures undertaken under the CrossRoads programme, especially a parallel bid evaluation system to improve the contracting of roads work and interventions to address market failures hindering the emergence of a locally owned roads industry. Setbacks and missed opportunities are linked to a misconceived approach to deepening institutional reform at the Ministry of Works and Transport and limitations of the instruments selected by CrossRoads for promoting change in the policy environment (including timely legislation) and addressing the deep-seated organizational and collective action challenges in the sector (including active support to upgrading the capabilities of firms). These areas of unfinished business are intrinsically very challenging. They also correspond to blind spots in the market systems improvement (Making Markets Work for the Poor) approach and weaknesses in conventional donor thinking about ‘advocacy’.

In order to address these weaknesses, future external support to the Uganda roads sector should recognize the need to break new ground in terms of methods as well as objectives. The funding and contracting modality should not just permit flexible responses to unforeseen opportunities and difficulties. It should also explicitly encourage an adaptive programme approach, as permitted by the ‘smart rules’ the Department for International Development recently adopted.