Baseline Report on Construction Workers of the BRT in Dakar, Senegal

Overview & Synopsis

Rapid population growth and urbanization place substantial demands on African countries’ infrastructures. With this, major investments in public infrastructure, including transport, telecommunications, and public housing, are crucially needed. It is usually predicted that such large infrastructure investments create direct and indirect jobs. These expectations are often used to support additional construction and infrastructure development since they will provide additional direct benefits through job creation in contexts where youth unemployment is a major concern. If unemployed or underemployed, the growing number of youth can pose a serious challenge to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and threaten social or political stability, particularly in urban areas. The labor-intensive nature of infrastructure projects means many job opportunities are created in the construction sector, one of the leading employment sectors for young people. In short, the construction sector has the potential to employ large numbers of young workers, while providing the needed infrastructure for cities to function. The DIME IeConnect, Constructing Africa’s cities: Measuring and enhancing construction worker welfare in Dakar impact evaluation project was designed to study this question of the impacts of the jobs created by large infrastructure projects. The context chosen for the study was Senegal, where two major transport infrastructure projects were being constructed in the Greater Dakar Area (GDA): i) a modern bus transport system with a high level of service (BRT) linking the city center to the north of the city; and ii) a railway express line (TER) linking the city center to the south of the city. The study aimed to inform government institutions in Senegal and other developing countries about the welfare of individuals employed in constructing a large public infrastructure project.