institutions, administrative centers, and other services and are the responsibility of the district governments. In 2008, 54 percent of the district roads were in poor condition (World Bank 2009b). Despite the higher than average road density in Uganda, the share of the population living within 2 km of an all-season road is no better than for other low-income African countries. Further while over half the rural roads in other low-income African countries are in good or fair condition, barely 40 percent of the rural roads in Uganda are in good or fair condition, highlighting the low accessibility of the rural areas.

_The road network in Uganda is highly fragmented_ . The main road networks originate from urban centers and connect surrounding areas. But connectivity between urban centers is limited—roads are either nonexistent or in poor condition. And a large portion of Uganda’s north and western central region, which are less dense in terms of population and have high incidence of poverty, are limited road connectivity (see figure 5a).

_Uganda is not devoting adequate resources to routine and periodic maintenance of the main infrastructure networks_ . Many countries in Africa have introduced road user charges—in the form of fuel levies—as a mechanism for funding road maintenance. Fuel levies in East Africa range widely from $0.03 to $0.20 per liter. Only in Kenya, however, is the fuel levy high enough to make a significant contribution to road maintenance funding. In Uganda, the optimal fuel levy is estimated to be around $0.18 per liter of fuel, while current spending levels on road maintenance are as low as just a few cents per liter of fuel. In fact, Uganda is one of the countries in Africa that has the largest divergence between actual and required spending on road maintenance (figure 10).

_Lack of safety on Ugandan roads is reaching alarming proportions_ . With rapidly growing motorization but only slightly improved road conditions, road accident fatalities in Uganda have increased dramatically over the last few years. The number of accidents has been growing at a rate of 6–7 percent per year, translating into a fatality rate of 81 per 100,000, double what is observed in Africa on average (World Bank 2009).

# Railways

## **Achievements**

_Uganda boasts one of the few binational railway systems in Africa connecting with Kenya._ [[Please choose: “Uganda boasts one of the few bi-national railway systems in Africa, connecting the country with Kenya.” or “Uganda boasts one of the few bi-national railways systems that connects with Kenya.”]] The railway has been developed as an integrated operation between the two countries based on a partnership between the Ugandan Railway Company (URC) and Kenya Railway (KRC). This configuration smoothes the passage of goods across national borders and avoids the lengthy delays otherwise associated with switching of locomotives as freight is shifted from one national network to another.

The URC network consists of four lines totaling 1,350 km of meter-gauge line, of which 259 km are currently being used under the binational concession with Kenya. The most heavily used URC link is the connection from Kampala to Malaba and the link between Kampala and the lake (Port Bell).

## **Challenges**

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