SENEGAL SECTOR: URBAN MOBILITY Measuring and Enhancing Construction Worker Welfare in Dakar What are the effects of offering jobs in the construction sector and non-cognitive skill training to low-skilled workers? Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Regional Express Train (TER) Projects PROJECT STATUS: Under Implementation TARGET AREA: Dakar, Senegal - 3.5 million people within an area of 550 km2 OBJECTIVE: Respond to the large need for fast, reliable transport in Dakar COMPONENTS: Context BRT consists of 18.3km with 23 stations in the northern part of Dakar The Government of Senegal has adopted two flagship projects to going to Guediawaye. TER consists of improve urban mobility in the Greater Dakar Area (GDA): i) a modern 36km with 14 stations in the southern bus transport system with high level of service (BRT) linking the city part of Dakar going to Diamniadio center to the north of the city; and ii) a railway express line (TER) linking the city center to the south of the city. Combined, these IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES: projects are expected to create direct and indirect employment for Executive Council of Urban Transport about 30,000 workers, of whom several thousand will be employed in Dakar (CETUD) and APIX in the construction phase. As is common to many large cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, the predominantly young population of Senegal faces limited opportunities for participation in the formal labor market. The high job insecurity and labor informality, especially among the poor and the youth, raises major concerns about how to provide jobs and livelihoods for Africa’s youth. Rapid population growth and urbanization is also placing substantial demands on Africa’s infrastructure with major investments in public infrastructure, including transport, telecommunications, and public housing, crucially needed. The labor-intensive nature of such projects provides an opportunity for job creation in the sector, which is one of the main sectors of employment for young men. Yet, while jobs can be created through large infrastructure projects, we do not know much about the actual impact of obtaining these jobs. They may improve consumption and other outcomes through the direct benefit of receiving wages, but it is possible that there is no long-term effect if after the duration of the project those construction workers then again join the ranks of the unemployed. Impact Evaluation Research Given these large investments in infrastructure, and the fact that job creation is often cited as an additional benefit of infrastructure investment generally, this Impact Evaluation (IE) aims to study and quantify the impacts of these jobs on workers. It will use the TER, which is currently under construction, as a pilot to conduct qualitative data collection on the experience of the construction Maps of BRT and TER lines workers. It will also study a pilot complementary non-cognitive training intervention using a randomized controlled trial to test if their job creation, potentially decreasing pressure on governments this additional training can improve current job outcomes and ability to explore different types of job creation policies. Yet, if the jobs to obtain a job at the end of the construction project. This pilot will created do not provide long term benefits, it may be necessary help to inform a study conducted with the construction workers for policy makers to explore alternative job creation mechanisms that will be employed in the construction of the BRT to test the or complementary policies that can magnify and maximize the impact of a number of interventions on employment and welfare benefits from obtaining a job through these large infrastructure outcomes for these workers. Outcomes include retention of work, projects. This IE will inform government organizations in Senegal as wage income, consumption, credit, health, job satisfaction, skills well as other developing countries on the effect of job generation acquired, and employment status after completion of construction from large infrastructure projects on the welfare of individuals projects. The specific interventions to be studied with the BRT will employed in the construction of the infrastructure itself. depend on the data collected during the pilot. Additionally, this IE will look at complementary policies that could be implemented in order to improve the welfare effects of the Policy Relevance construction jobs by studying how providing complementary Youth unemployment is a major concern for African governments, training affects the ability of workers to find jobs in the future. The in particular in urban areas. Yet not all jobs are equally welfare results will provide governments with estimates of the benefits of improving, there is very little research and knowledge quantifying complementary worker training when it undertakes the building of the benefits or negative externalities of obtaining a job in the large infrastructure projects. construction sector, especially through large, government-funded infrastructure investments. This question is critical from a policy For more information email dimetransport@worldbank.org or visit point of view because often infrastructure projects are touted for www.worldbank.org/en/research/dime/brief/transport The ieConnect for Impact program links project teams with researchers to develop rigorous and innovative impact evaluations that both substantially improve the evidence-base for policy making and induce global shifts in transport policy. The ieConnect program is a collaboration between the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) unit in the Development Research Group and the Transport & Digital Development Global Practice (TDD). This program is part of the Impact Evaluation to Development Impact (i2i) multi-donor trust fund and is supported by the UKAID’s Department of International Development (DFID) and the European Union (EU).