CAREC Road Asset Management Maturity Assessment and Training of Trainers

The CAREC Institute delivered a four-day virtual workshop on Road Asset Management (RAM) and RAM Systems held on 10-13 August 2020 involving relevant senior CAREC government officials and experts. This marked the first CAREC Institute-led activity in RAM field in line with the CAREC Transport Strategy 2030, in which the CAREC Institute, as the CAREC Program knowledge arm, is mandated to lead such activities in the implementation process of the strategy. The workshop was a success and effective despite being delivered online. It provided a broad platform to engage with leading CAREC RAM policy influencers and experts as well as to facilitate expert discussions on various aspects of RAM. It also set the stage for the CAREC Institute to plan its future capacity building activities in this area on a holistic and systemic way going forward since implementing partners and country experts highlighted some of the gaps in RAM and RAM information systems (RAMIS) across CAREC countries and discussed follow up potential areas of intervention.

Among other follow up actions recommended, a maturity assessment of RAM in CAREC countries was prioritized. This is to conduct a preliminary assessment of RAM practices (i.e., policies, procedures, information systems) across all CAREC countries and establish a systematic capacity building program in this area that is based on pressing needs. The CAREC Institute has transformed its capacity building interventions to avoid one-off events and to offer cascading and research-based capacity building to member countries. While the Institute is planning another two four-day workshops on RAM under its Rolling Operational Plan 2021-2022, it is seeking support and endorsement in conducting a RAM maturity assessment of the CAREC countries to ensure future workshops would best meet the countries’ needs.
The assessment will be based on the International Infrastructure Management Manual RAM process diagram used in the recent workshop, which is now familiar to CAREC countries. For each of the stage in the process, a series of questions (likely 3-5 for each stage) will be developed that reflects the specifics of RAM, with responses reflecting the level of progress the country has made on that specific item. Guidance will be provided on the scoring, to ensure the results are robust and compatible across all member countries. The use of a CAREC-specific RAM maturity assessment, as opposed to more generic maturity assessments that are available, is that the RAM specific version can focus the questions on matters of importance for CAREC countries. It will also help them managing road assets and consequently creating a more useful improvement plan going forward.

This activity entails online workshops (one-on-one and as part of a group) – targeting leading CAREC RAM experts/researchers in a ToT program on RAM. The main objective of this workshop is to provide the target participants with specific guidance on RAM maturity assessment, methods of data collection and utilize their support for country-specific RAM assessment.