Monitoring and Evaluation of the Manzini Golf Course Interchange Project

Description :

As a way to stimulate its economy and increase the export of goods across the different regions and surrounding countries, the government of the Kingdom of Eswatini has focused on “Infrastructure Development, Balanced Regional Growth and Urbanisation”, which is a pillar of the National Development Strategy (NDS) 1999-2022, as well as of the Strategy for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth (SSDIG) 2030. To this end, the National Transport Master Plan (2013) broadly articulates the investment priorities in the sector and advocates for sustainable infrastructure, asset preservation and institutional strengthening coupled with the need to develop an integrated and seamless system that reduces transport cost and improves efficiency.

As part of this plan, the government of the Kingdom of Eswatini funded, in partnership with other donors such as the African Development Bank, the Manzini-Mbadlane Highway Project, which entails the dualization of an existing 30km single carriageway road between the city of Manzini and Mbadlane on the MR3. The MR3 is designated as a regional road and the main east–west strategic link between the major cities of Mbabane, Manzini and the industrial town of Mustapha. The road also serves as the major regional road link to South Africa and to international market through Mozambique via the port of Maputo.

Data collected between 2013 and 2017 show the Mbabane‐Mustapha‐Manzini corridor is congested with traffic, exceeding 20,000 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) and that accidents along MR3 contributed between 20-30% of the accidents and fatalities on the road country wide.

In order to provide safe, efficient and cost-effective transport systems that contributes to improving regional trade connectivity and mobility in urban areas along the MR3, the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini has obtained a loan from the African Development Bank for the Development of the Manzini Golf Course Interchange (MGCI). The MGCI lies at the start of the Manzini-Mbadlane project and aims at improving functionality on the MR3. The specific objective of this project is to positively impact i) vehicle operating costs, ii) travel time between regional and urban centres, and iii) road safety through reduced accidents. The project also aims at creating gender-balanced job opportunities for skilled/semi-skilled Emaswati.

Services provided :

1. Technical Support on the Socio-Economic Impact Evaluation

• Participatory Development of the Result-Management Framework (RMF) of the Project;
• Analysis of the selected result indicators and identification of the data collection need for each indicator
• Elaboration of the Methodology for the establishment of the Baseline values of the result indicators
• Establishment of baseline values of the selected indicators;
• Baseline data collection surveys on selected result indicators (indicators related to transport and traffic, socioeconomic indicators)
• Data analysis of the baseline report
• Two years later, establishment of the endline values of the selected indicators, using the same methodology as for the baseline
• Data analysis and Production of the impact evaluation report

2. Follow-up support missions

• RBM and Capacity Building of the Roads Department staff
• Intermediate Traffic count

3. Elaboration of the Road Department’s Performance Management Framework

• In-Depth Analysis of the Strategic Plan and the Theory of Change (ToC) and Logic Model of the Road Department (RD)
• Development of the RD’s Planning & Performance Management Framework;
• Customization of the M&E software LogAlto and training of administrators and user