| This dissertation studies the state of road networks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (herein DRC) from 1966 to 1990. I have collected the available data from the International Road Federation from 1966--1996. My study covers the period only until 1996 for this was the most peaceful in the country's history despite the Shaba (Katanga) Wars of the 1980s, and one in which an improvement in the quality of roads should have taken place. Although the 1990s was open to the so-called multiparty system, and Perestroika was supposed to introduce democracy, the DRC was nonetheless treated as a pariah. Its government was ostracized by the international community, which put pressure on Mobutu's regime to democratize the country by allowing a coalition of opposition parties to control the government.;The main argument is that a lack of "good governance" is to blame for the fact that roads deteriorated as they did in the DRC specifically, loans that were granted for improvement of the road network were systematically diverted by government officials for their personal benefit. And, as an adequate road network is crucial to reducing poverty, this explains the high level of pauperism in the country.;In a country the size of the U.S. east of the Mississippi, only 2,500 km of roads, approximately 1% of the total road network, was paved in 1990, and this was the same length of paved road networks that the DRC inherited from the Belgian colonial government when independence was attained in 1960. This explains the overall lack of development in the DRC and particularly in rural areas, where people suffer from lack of access to health care or education and lack of drinkable water. The road network is a critical component of the fight against poverty in a country such as the DRC, where the majority resides in rural areas. It provides the cheapest means of transportation and access to electricity, gas, telecommunications, and water and drainage. Access to roads for rural farmers facilitates economic expansion through exchange and trade, by allowing farmers' crops to reach marketplaces. The fight against poverty requires, along with economic growth, good governance, and socially inclusive development, investment in physical infrastructure such as roads and greater access to them by the poorest. Achieving this is a win-win strategy in fighting poverty.;This dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter studies the quality of road networks in the DRC. The second chapter focuses on corruption as an explanation of why the road networks in the DRC did not improve during the only stable period of peace that DRC has known. The third chapter discusses agricultural policies, agricultural production and roads in the DRC, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. |
