Governance, mobility and citizen engagement: Governance Processes in the Transport Sector in the Republic of Guinea

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IN

DEGREE PROJECT CIVIL ENGINEERING AND URBAN MANAGEMENT,

SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2020,

Governance, mobility and citizen engagement

Governance Processes in the Transport Sector in the Republic of Guinea

CHRISTELLE FERMANIAN

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Guinean Road Network (SOFRECO, 2019) ... 11

Figure 2: Links between Literature Review Themes and Research Questions ... 15

Figure 3: Interviews' map (Google maps) ... 27

Figure 4: Structure of the interviews ... 27

Figure 5: The interviews - Summary ... 29

Figure 6: The Conakry Express (ConakryInfos, 2017) ... 31

Figure 7: The Conakry Express (Google maps) ... 32

Figure 8: Kindia Station (Kankan Radio, 2019) ... 33

Figure 9: Conakry-Kindia line (Google maps) ... 34

Figure 10: Links between Results, Literature Review Themes and Research Questions ... 37

Figure 11: Bauxite and gold deposits in Guinea (Guinea Minier Symposium, 2018) ... 38

Figure 12: Car with a driver ... 55

Figure 13: Car with militaries ... 55

Figure 14: Car with a driver ... 56

Figure 15: Car with transport of goods on the roof ... 56

Figure 16: A break during the journey on a paved road ... 57

Figure 17: An unpaved road ... 57

Figure 18: A man trying to cross a flooded road during the rainy season ... 58

Figure 19: A car with the inscription “n’oublie pas ta maman” ... 60

Figure 20: A car in the dust ... 61

Figure 21: A car with the driver and luggage on the roof ... 61

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all I would like to thank Andrew Karvonen who was my supervisor throughout this master thesis and helped me to define my subject and structure my thinking. Thank you for your advice and positivism, which motivated me and convinced me to give my best to this project.

Thanks also to Théo Audigier, from SOFRECO company where I work, who supervised me during my internship and helped me discover the issues behind transport infrastructure development in African countries. I would also like to thank all the SOFRECO teams, especially the Transport, Energy and Infrastructure department, who welcomed me in this company and allowed me to work in parallel on this research project.

I would like to thank all the KTH supervising staff, my teachers and fellow students of the EESIA Master's degree with whom I had the chance to spend a year and who taught me that becoming an engineer could be done with the aim of creating a sustainable and equitable world. Thanks also to Karolina Isaksson who accepted to evaluate my master thesis, and to Johanna Abrahamsson who will be my opponent.

Thank you to all the people who participated in this research project by agreeing to be interviewed, to discuss the themes addressed, to read my thesis and to advise me on all aspects.

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ABSTRACT

Governance processes are very complicated in the transport sector in the Republic of Guinea, because of a multiplicity of actors (a complicated institutional framework, the involvement of western countries and China in the country, and the power of the private sector with the mining companies), a historical background (the engagement and disengagement of western countries with the colonization), and a lack of financial means from the government. However, the transport sector is very important in terms of development for Guinea, first because the economy of the country is based on mines and agriculture (both needing an efficient transport sector) and secondly because of a growing population in the last decade.

This research project will study how current governance processes in the transport sector in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country.

The evolution of the transport sector during the last decade, the actors, their governance processes and how they align with and contradict development expectations in the Republic of Guinea, and how these processes can be improved will be assessed.

Through a literature review, a desk-based study, the analyze of two specific case studies, and interviews, this research project comes up to different findings. The development of transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy:

many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea and face different issues, but there are also international actors who create opportunities and threats in terms of social and economic development. To lower these threats, international actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects.

Different processes can be implemented in term of prioritization of projects and funding planning. To have better governance processes, studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens as real stakeholders of the development of this transport sector. This can be done through different processes that must lead to the development of an efficient, safe and affordable transport sector for all.

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SAMMANFATTNING

Styrningsprocesser är mycket komplicerade inom transportsektorn i Republiken Guinea på grund av ett flertal aktörer (ett komplicerat institutionellt ramverk, västländers och Kinas engagemang i landet och den privata sektorns makt med gruvföretag), en historisk bakgrund (västländers engagemang och frikoppling av koloniseringen) och brist på ekonomiska medel från regeringen. Transportsektorn är emellertid mycket viktig när det gäller utvecklingen för Guinea, först eftersom landets ekonomi är baserad på gruvor och jordbruk (båda behöver en effektiv transportsektor) och för det andra på grund av en växande befolkning under det senaste decenniet.

Detta forskningsprojekt kommer att studera hur nuvarande styrningsprocesser i transportsektorn i Republiken Guinea anpassar sig till landets utvecklingsbehov.

Utvecklingen av transportsektorn under det senaste decenniet, aktörerna, deras styrningsprocesser och hur de anpassar sig till och motsäger utvecklingsförväntningarna i Republiken Guinea och hur dessa processer kan förbättras kommer att bedömas.

Genom en litteraturöversikt, en genomgång av sekundärkällor, analys av två specifika fallstudier och intervjuer kommer detta forskningsprojekt fram till följande resultat. Utvecklingen av transportsektorn är viktig i Guineas ekonomi: många lokala aktörer är involverade i transportsektorn i Guinea och står inför olika frågor, men det finns också internationella aktörer som skapar möjligheter och hot när det gäller social och ekonomisk utveckling. För att mildra dessa hot måste internationella aktörer och staten samordnas när det gäller finansiering av transportprojekt. Olika processer kan implementeras i samband med prioritering av projekt och finansieringsplanering. För att få bättre styrningsprocesser, studier och processer för prioritering av projekt måste medborgarna involveras som verkliga intressenter i utvecklingen av denna transportsektor. Detta kan göras genom olika processer som måste leda till utvecklingen av en effektiv, säker och prisvärd transportsektor för alla.

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1 INTRODUCTION

Transport is one of the main issues in the developing countries. Mobility inside cities or in the country is a way to develop and facilitate exchanges of people and goods, and have direct impacts on nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals defined by United Nations in 2015 (United Nation, 2015): no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities. Planning, financing and managing the development and the maintenance of infrastructure is a challenge in developing countries, especially when government do not have the amount of money needed, and when institutional and social instability put a brake on long-term planning and policies.

The Republic of Guinea, also named Guinea-Conakry, is a West African country (part of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States) that took its independence from French colonization in 1958. It is a very rich country in term of natural resources (especially mineral and water resources) but faces a lot of challenges in term of development, especially in the transport sector.

Indeed, the transport sector is very important for the Guinean economy, which is mostly based on agriculture and mining, both sectors needing good transport axes to assure the transport of goods. Socially, the transport sector is also very meaningful because the Republic of Guinea is facing an important demographic issue: according to the UN, people under fourteen years old accounted for 42% of the population in 2016. Cities like Conakry are crowded and mobility is complicated between the city and the suburb, and the consequences are an increase of the congestion and pollution of the city. Inside the country, the lack of public transport and the poor state of the road network create long travels that can last for several days for people who want to find jobs, education or health care in other cities.

Nowadays, the transport sector in Guinea is mostly based on road transport.

According to the 2019 Sectorial Political Letter on the transport sector, Guinea reaches a density of 18.4 km of roads per 100 km² with a total of more than 45,000 km of roads. About 30% of the roads are paved; this ratio is low compared to other West African countries. People who do not have private cars use taxis or magbanas (minibuses) to go from a city to another, or motorcycle-taxis inside the

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cities. These official transport are organized but not well regulated (a lot of driver do not have any licenses), and very dangerous. The 2019 Sectorial Political Letter explains that the airline network is not developed inside the country (the only operational airport is in Conakry, the capital city) and the only existing railway network is developed and used by mining companies. The only public transport that exists is the Conakry-Express, a 30-km train line between Kagbelen and Kaloum in Conakry suburb.

Moreover, transport planning in Guinea is complicated because of the multiplicity of actors. Historically, the engagement of the French people with the colonization, and their disengagement with the independence and the end of the cold war left traces. Matthew Lockwood (Will a Marshall Plan for Africa Make Poverty History, 2005) and Peter Ekeh (Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa, 1975) explain the impacts that colonization had (and still has nowadays) on developing countries like Guinea, especially in terms of governance and development. The infrastructure and the transport sector are facing these governance problems.

Then, we have seen in the last decades the rise of the implication of China in the development of African countries, as a new actor in the governance processes in the development of infrastructure. Félix Edoho (Globalization and Marginalization of Africa: Contextualization of China-Africa Relations, 2011) and Chris Alden (China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon?, 2009) assess the implication of this new actor, and the consequences that can already be seen in some places and sectors, such as in the transport sector. They explain that China is omnipresent in Africa, and that this partnership helped African development and globalization, but that this relation is very unequal, to the detriment of African countries such as Guinea.

This involvement of international actors (western countries and Africa) in the governance processes in the transport sector raises different opportunities and threats in the transport sector in West Africa especially in Guinea. This involvement is accompanied by the involvement of private actors such as the mining companies that develop their own transport networks without real management from the state.

These uncoordinated actions have consequences on the social and economic development of the country.

These interactions lead to the governance concept, which is “an instrument for conceptualizing issues on the boundary between the social and the political, or in current technology, between state, market and civil society” (Kooiman, 2003, page 8) and to the study of governance processes in Guinea, and their failures.

However, it is possible to improve these complicated governance processes:

planning processes and alternative solutions have been studied by searchers in the last decades, such as Gerry Stoker (Governance as theory: five propositions, 1998) who assesses the notion of interactions and networks in governance processes, by Andreas Faludi (Multi-Level (Territorial) Governance: Three Criticisms, 2012) who explains that planners are nowadays invoking “multi-level governance” whereas “governance” is supposed to gather all kinds of collective actions intended by different types of stakeholders. The involvement of citizens is seen as a necessity regarding the issues raised by the governance processes in Guinea: as Vanessa Watson explains (Conflicting Rationalities: Implications for Planning Theory and Ethics, 2003) colonization has created a situation with western institutions and traditional habits, and there are a lot of misunderstanding

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and controversies in African developing countries between decision-makers and citizens when we talk about infrastructure planning.

The lack of research regarding governance processes in the transport sector in Guinea leads to wonder how current governance processes in transport projects in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. This question raises four research questions for this research project:

1. How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?

2. Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?

3. How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?

4. What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?

The geographical scope of this research project is the Republic of Guinea because the governance processes in this country are very specific: the historical and new involvement of international countries and the richness of the mining sector make complicated the elaboration of coordinated a long-term transport plans. Moreover, having a country as a scope is interesting because it is a way to cover the urban and rural mobility issues, which are very different. A region (ECOWAS for example) would be too broad to fully understand the institutional functioning, and choosing a city (for example Conakry) would focus more on urban issues and overshadow some major issues in terms of transportation in the country.

To answer to these research objectives, the methodology of this research project is based on a comparative case study approach (two specific case studies of transport projects in Guinea will be described, assessed and compared in order to have realistic and applied results on the question of these governance processes) and two methods to collect primary and secondary data. These methods are semi- structured interviews (seven interviews conducted with different types of stakeholders involved in these governance processes) and a desk based study (based on newspapers, websites and policy documents).

This methodology leads this research project to five main themes of findings that cover firstly the fact that the development of transport sector is important and essential in Guinea’s economy, and that many local actors are involved in the transport sector of Guinea and face different issues. International actors create opportunities and threats for the country in terms of social and economic development, and to lower the threats, international actors and the state must be coordinated in terms of financing transport projects. To have better governance processes, studies and processes of prioritization of projects must involve the citizens as real stakeholders of the development of this transport sector.

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2 BACKGROUND

The Republic of Guinea, a country of 12.7 million people (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018), has an average population density of about 48 inhabitants per square kilometre, and a total area of 245,720 km².

Despite its many natural resources (including mining), Guinea remains one of the poorest countries in the region: in 2012, 35% of the population lived below the poverty line (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018), and the labor force is only 7 million (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). The socio- political stakes of recent decades have thus weakened the institutions, the economic situation (low growth, sharp deterioration of the management of public finances with large budget deficits, high inflation, and weight debt) and the social situation (increasing poverty, gender disparities). These different factors have hampered different poverty reduction strategies and plans, especially in the transport sector.

In addition, in 2016, 16% of the coated network was categorized as bad (Sectorial Political Letter, 2019). The roads have not been maintained for about 20 years, which explains their advanced degradation. The high general rainfall and aisle overloads regularly observed on trucks aggravate the phenomenon (Sectorial Political Letter, 2019). As a result, some areas remain heavily landlocked; others become so again, especially areas with high agricultural potential. Production faces great difficulties in accessing markets, which has a strong impact on commercial value chains and the movement of populations. Worse, the weak road network has significantly reduced the activity of the formal sector, demonstrating the urgency of building roads connecting strategic routes (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018).

More locally, the lack of public transport and the special geographical location of Conakry, located at the tip of an already congested peninsula, cause significant delays and traffic jams to get there and out (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 51). Planning for future infrastructure must take this issue into account and facilitate the de-cluttering of the city.

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Figure 1: Guinean Road Network (SOFRECO, 2019)

Over the past decade, the Guinean government has undertaken numerous economic development actions to reduce these imbalances. The development of the national territory, and in particular the transport sector, is at the heart of this development. For example, a National Transport Plan (NTP) realized in 2002 for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Public Works presents all the projects planned for the years 2002-2040 in order to ensure the development of this sector.

However, a Sectorial Political Letter (SPL) from 2019, written and published by the Guinean State, shows that between 2002 and 2019 only a few things changed and many projects planned were not implemented, most of the time for questions of money.

The main objective of the 2002 NTP for road transport was to have a

“comprehensive, efficient, safe, secure and extensive road network of internal and external transport services and connections, offering acceptable transport, safety and environmental conditions at the lowest possible cost” (NTP, 2002, Vol. 4, page 96). According to the current data of the SPL 2019 (presented earlier), this objective has not been achieved today. With regard to the rail network, the 2002 NTP expressed the intention to develop a surface metro project to draw up an urban travel plan for the Conakry metropolitan area. This project came into being under the name Conakry Express. However, in the air sector, no progress was observed: the objective of the 2002 NTP was to have a network of regional airports with a good level of service, facilitating the development of a network of domestic lines serving remote regions (Labé, Kankan, Nzérékoré), and a network of neighbourhood lines. There is currently no operational airport in Guinea except that of Conakry.

In addition, railway lines operated by mining companies were not covered in the 2002 NTP, and need to be rationally integrated in planning now. Indeed, in recent years, a Master Plan for the Development of Auxiliary Mining Transport Infrastructure has been developed by the Ministry of Transport and the mining companies in order to promote the coherence of the transport network used by the mining companies by increasing their collaboration (SPL, 2019). This willingness to

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strengthen cooperation between private and public actors with the aim of increasing the coherence of each one's projects and major strategic orientations was materialized by a first agreement in 2015 between the Guinean State and these companies regarding the Kamsar - Sangaredi railway (SPL, 2019).

Legislation concerning the mutualisation of railway lines is an essential factor in coherent development, and has therefore evolved somewhat in recent years, although it was not a primary goal of the 2002 NTP.

At the same time, Guinea's economy is rebounding, with a growth rate of 8.8% in 2017 according to the World Bank, despite a slowdown to 5.8% in 2018 (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018). At the level of recent years, this represents a significant change, especially compared to the low or negative rates of the beginning of the decade (an increase of 1.9% in 2010 and a decrease of 0.3% in 2009).

Guinea's economy relies mainly on mining production (it owns one third of the world's bauxite reserves and is one of the largest producers of diamonds and gold) and agriculture (which accounts for 24% of the country's GDP). The World Bank states, in a Country Diagnostic In 2018, that “Mining and agriculture have been the drivers of economic growth in Guinea” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 9). On the one side, the mining production is controlled by mining private companies that need good transportation of goods and develop their own railway lines and other transportation modes. On the other side, “about 80% of the population is employed in the agriculture sector, most of them poor, with almost 90 percent of the poor and the extreme poor living in rural areas” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 1). The agriculture sector is important in Guinean economy, not because of the amount of money engaged, but because of the number of people living thanks to this activity.

Despite this huge importance in the development of the country, the transport sector faces a lot of problem in Guinea. The rainy season and the lack of road maintenance result in a network in very poor condition, unsafe, with very few communication routes and an absence of public transport. Journeys within Guinea are long, dangerous, and uncomfortable. Passenger transport is carried out in the same way as goods transport: in old vehicles filled to capacity, in a very informal way without any real regulation and control of drivers' skills. Urban transport is no better, large cities like Conakry are completely congested, journeys last hours, are almost exclusively by car, and dramatically increase the pollution of the city.

The necessary investments in the transport sector require a lot of money, which the Guinean Government cannot provide. This results, in addition to institutional fragility, in the continued involvement of Western countries and China in transport development projects. Compared to other African countries, China was involved very early in the development of Guinea: since the end of the 50s and the independence of Guinea in 1958, China has supported the young Guinean state by granting official development aid and by sending a team of experts and technicians (Ibrahima Ahmed Barry, 2017), especially regarding transportation and transport projects.

These transport projects unfortunately present many threats for the sustainable development of the country, firstly because they do not resolve the problems of institutional weakness of the Guinean Government, and secondly because they do not take Guinean citizens into account in the decision-making processes.

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These failures in the governance processes implemented in the transport sector are mentioned by the World Bank: “The growth performance diagnostic indicates that poor political and economic governance lie at the center of Guinea’s development difficulties” (World Bank, Systematic country diagnostic, 2018, page 34). Presented as a core element of the development issues existing in Guinea, these governance processes need to be studied and assessed in order to develop alternative solutions.

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3 LITERATURE REVIEW

This Literature Review is composed of four themes that represent well the state of the research regarding these ideas of governance processes, transportation, and developing countries especially the Republic of Guinea. These themes are directly related to the different findings and result that will be found on chapter 6.

These four themes are:

§ A: The importance of the transport sector in the development of Guinea

§ B: The historical background of the involvement of international actors (western countries) in developing countries, especially in the transport sector, with the colonization, and the disengagement of western countries with the end of the cold war;

§ C: The implication of China in the development of African countries;

§ D: Governance and the failure of governance processes in Guinea, and alternative processes to face them.

Theme A is directly related to the research question n°1 (Q1: How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?) and n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?). The aim of this theme is to examine what are the links developed in the literature between good transportation sector and sustainable development, especially in developing countries like Guinea. This theme will help to answer to these research questions n°1 and 3, to fully and rightly analyze the evolution of the transport sector of Guinea over the last decade, and the impact on the development of the country.

Theme B is related to the research question n°2 (Q2: Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?). As it was explained in the Introduction and in the Background chapters, international actors, especially western countries have been involved a lot in developing countries like Guinea.

These mechanisms due to colonization and decolonization have been studied by researchers and will be described in this theme to answer to this question.

Theme C is also related to this research question n°2: after the involvement of western countries, researchers have analyzed the appearance of China in this context of developing infrastructure projects in the transport sector. This analyze is

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necessary to address the question of key actors and key processes in the transport sector in Guinea.

Theme D is linked to the research question n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?) and n°4 (Q4: What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?). The literature shows some critics regarding these processes in Guinea, and many authors have assessed the development of alternative governance processes in order to face these failures.

Literature Review Themes Research questions

Theme A Q1 and Q3

Theme B Q2

Theme C Q2

Theme D Q3 and Q4

Figure 2: Links between Literature Review Themes and Research Questions

3.1 The importance of the transport sector in the development of Guinea

The transport sector is one of the most important sectors in terms of sustainable economic development in developing countries. Indeed, this notion of transport is at the heart of the majority of SDGs (United Nations, 2015) as explained in the introduction. The economy of a country is based on its trade in goods; these exchanges can only take place properly with an efficient transport sector. In addition, on a social level, raw materials such as food and clothing must be able to circulate on the territory, as well as medicines. Transporting people is also very important, in order to ensure access to education and healthcare for all, and to increase access to work. Among infrastructure, transport infrastructure has a real direct impact on the economy and society of a country, especially a developing country like Guinea.

As Fulmer (2009, page 30) explains, infrastructure has many different definitions.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (2009):

The infrastructure supporting human activities includes complex and interrelated physical, social, ecological, economic, and technological systems such as transportation and energy production and distribution; water resources management; waste management; facilities supporting urban and rural communities; communications; sustainable resources development; and environmental protection.

Transportation is enumerated as the first type of infrastructure in this definition, and has an impact on all the aspects of the development of a society. Fulmer follows that definition and explains that infrastructure provides essential products and services to enable, maintain or improve the living conditions of a society. He presents infrastructure as essential elements of our lives: « Infrastructure systems or networks of inter-related components are the analogous arteries and veins attaching society to the essential commodities and services required to uphold or improve the standards of living» (Fulmer, 2009, page 30).

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Moreover, infrastructure development is one of the most important things in developing countries. Fulmer explains that « Infrastructure needs are especially pronounced in emerging economies whose citizens struggle to gain access to even the most basic life-supporting commodities and services» (Fulmer, 2009, page 32).

Among the different types of infrastructure, David Canning and Marianne Fay decided to quantify the impact of transportation on economic growth, and come up to the same conclusion: after analysing panel data from 96 countries to calculate and compare the marginal product of transport infrastructure, they explain that

« there is evidence that the rate of return to transportation infrastructure is very high in middle income countries that are undergoing rapid development » (Canning and Fay, 1993, page 28). They also explain that the impact of infrastructure is slow but long lasting: an increase in transport infrastructure has little impact on short- term production but leads to higher growth rates and higher long-term production.

This little short-term impact of infrastructure development in developing countries is a problem. Indeed infrastructure projects « typically involve substantial capital investment » (Fulmer, 2009, page 30), and a lack of direct return on investment will lead to less investment and capitals.

This impact of infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, on developing countries is especially true for Guinea. Lan, Chen and Lim decided, in 2016, to study the specific case of Guinea and the impact of infrastructure (on a broad level) on the development of the country. They explain that « the lack of infrastructure in many developing countries represents one of the most significant limitations to the economic growth and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals » (Lan, Chen and Lim, 2016, page 277) and, in front of the lack of studies regarding Guinea, decided to study the case of this country. They examined the current development of infrastructure in Guinea and examined the relationship between infrastructure and economic growth and the differences in infrastructure to contribute to economic growth. They analysed data from the World Bank and Guinean official data, and used economic models to evaluate the impact of infrastructure on the development of Guinea. The strong link that they observed between these two notions led them to suggest to the government of Guinea to

“through direct investment and mobilization of social resources, invest on a large scale investment in transportation, energy, telecommunication construction and other infrastructures” (Lan, Chen and Lim, 2016, page 289), in order to improve related areas of shortage of products or services and provide an important basis for an efficient economic growth.

As Fulmer explains, « infrastructure systems are costly and their focus is not on individuals, segregated groups, or independent companies, but on broader society» (Fulmer, 2009, page 31): the huge impact of infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, on the development of Guinea justify important and coherent investment from all stakeholders of this sector.

These investments have to be coordinated between the different actors involved in this sector, and these actors are numerous.

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3.2 The colonization and the disengagement of Western countries with the end of the cold war

To fully understand the involvement of so many actors in the transport sector of Guinea, especially international western actors, we need to fully understand the history behind this involvement. This history is directly related to the colonization and the impacts that colonization had (and still has nowadays) on developing countries like Guinea.

Development politics in Guinea have been very complicated and unstable during the last centuries. Colonialism, post-colonized period, cold war, post-cold war period succeeded to each other, and we are now in a globalized world in which Guinea has difficulties to exist as a main actor, despite its many resources. Growth and development are in progress for many years (especially in the infrastructure, including the transport sector), but the progression could have been much better, and this slowness is directly related to the colonialist past of Guinea.

In "Will a Marshall Plan for Africa Make Poverty History?", Matthew Lockwood (2005) looks at the consequences of colonialism on the development of African countries. He discusses how Western countries can help African countries achieve their development goals, while avoiding repeating the mistakes made in previous centuries. This can be done by understanding and taking into account the reality of African states and their political systems. These governance processes, their impacts and failures have also been analyzed by Peter Ekeh (1975). In the chapter

" Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: a Theoretical Statement" (page 91- 112), he focuses on what he calls private realm and public realm, notions that are extremely different in Western and African countries. Indeed, he explains that these two realms share a common base of moral rules in Western societies, whereas in African societies colonization has led to the creation of two different public realms. This duality within civil society, and the way in which these two public realms interact with each other, must be studied and understood when undertaking development plans in African countries.

These two texts explain to the reader how the way in which European countries became involved in the development processes in African countries with colonialism, has not been an aid for the development of these countries. On the contrary, colonisation had very strong consequences on African societies such as the Guinean society, and not only the theft of natural resources that took place all over the African continent. Indeed, the colonial governments established by the Europeans also had strong negative impacts, impacts that did not disappear during the post-decolonisation period (Lockwood presents “the failure of governance reforms” (page 775, 2005)), and that can still be observed in the governance processes of the last decades.

Ekeh (1975, page 96) explains that the colonial ideologies “not only backhandedly justified their penetration into Africa but also justified to their fellow countrymen their continuing actions”. This justification was made in order to hide the reality of things, the plundering of the natural resources of African countries in order to achieve the development and industrialization of the colonizing countries, and to make the world (including the Africans themselves) believe that the colonized countries were beneficiaries of these colonization processes. Concretely, this

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propaganda consisted in making African peoples believe that their past was not as honourable as that of the Europeans, and that only the colonizers (whom they should thank) could bring them growth. These processes have led to great social instability in African countries, with the emergence of a new social class that Ekeh calls "African bourgeois" (Ekeh, 1975, page 93). This class of citizens integrated the ideologies spread by the colonizers, and because of this, were unable to establish good governance processes after decolonization in order to carry out the development of the countries.

A more equal relationship between Western countries and Africa could have occurred during the post-decolonization period, with Western countries honestly and generously supporting Africa's development, but that was not the case. As Lockwood (2005; page 776) explains, "There is macroeconomic evidence that aid does, in fact, bring growth regardless of policies"; aid has been useful in recent decades and has brought some growth, but not as much as expected, for two main reasons: governance and conditionalities. In fact, some uncoordinated and arbitrary NGO projects have failed to create strong states with real infrastructure, public services and political will.

Western aid compensated for the lack of government structures and investment in infrastructure, but this kind of approach cannot create a strong and independent developed state. Moreover, Westerners wanted to have some control over macroeconomic policy in Africa and decided to make their aid conditional.

Conditionality represents a process of neo-colonialism in which Western countries do not want to support Africa's development, but rather to control it. In reality, this aid was not altruistic, because in the context of the Cold War, Western countries had to maintain close contacts with African old colonies in order to constitute the strongest ideological bloc. In the post-Cold War context, globalization seemed more important than the maintenance of dominance over Africa, as Edoho (2011;

p. 110) writes: “the Western disengagement from Africa is a post-cold war phenomenon, compounded by globalization”. The main consequence of these selfish processes is that Western countries abandoned African countries at the end of the Cold war, as these links were not essential anymore.

The Republic of Guinea suffered from the impacts of this colonization (Guinea was a French colony between 1891 and 1958) and the impacts can already be seen nowadays: the remaining transportation infrastructure constructed during the colonization phase are still here, and the political instability that happens in the country is related to the difficulty of creating a political systems dealing with the consequences of the colonization on the society (the two public realms described by Ekeh). This instability and succession of engagement and disengagement of western countries complicate the elaboration of long-term policies in terms of infrastructure development.

3.3 The implication of China in the development of African countries

Western countries are not the only option to help development processes in Guinea, because nowadays there is a strong relationship between China and African countries such as Guinea, as we can see in “Globalization and Marginalization of Africa: Contextualization of China-Africa Relations” (pages 103- 124) written by Edoho in 2011. China helps African countries being part of the

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globalization but their relation is unbalanced and less productive for these countries, such as Guinea. Since decolonization, some strong and close relationships between Guinea and China appeared because of the abandonment of the Western countries explained before, but this relationship is also a threat for governance processes in Guinea.

In previous literature, the role of China in infrastructure development projects in Africa has been discussed both in positive and more critical terms. On the positive side, China supports the development of infrastructures and the globalization of African countries and is nowadays omnipresent in these countries. As Edoho (2011; p. 105:106) explains, “China will share its technical expertise, human resources, managerial capabilities, industrial production techniques, and modernization experience with Africa”. This mutual interest is based on the fact that African countries, especially Guinea, have a lot of resources, and that, as explained before, China’s investment and partnerships are useful for African countries’ development. Compared to colonial times, China does not govern in Africa but offers solutions to many problems that have badly influenced development policy, such as lack of infrastructure and public services, declining investment or lack of know-how due to brain drain. A huge increase in the number of partnerships between China and African countries, construction projects (especially in the transport sector) funded by China, foreign investment and export revenues can be observed over the last ten years.

However, at the same time, many critics can be raised about this partnership.

Indeed, Edoho explains the inequality behind these partnerships. The wealth of Africa lies in natural resources and raw materials, but most of the finished products are imported in these countries (especially from China). The single-product economies developed in Africa, such as in Guinea (where the economy is based on mining especially bauxite) creates instability and vulnerability. In contrast, China has reached its stage of development and uses African countries as an important source of raw materials. In recent decades, China's natural resources have not been sufficient to cope with population growth.

Since then, a solution was needed not to stop the economic development of the country, as Edoho (2011; p. 108) explains: “Africa has the resources that China needs to sustain the momentum of its increasing modernization and rapid industrialization”. In addition to using its natural resources for its own development, Chinese government brings their own labour forces to Africa, and this level of migration does not create jobs nor improve technical knowledge and education.

This recent implication of China is seen by the authors as an unbalanced relationship that can be seen as a type of colonization. However, even if China has a major financial influence on the transport sector of Guinea, the Chinese government does not govern China and governance processes must (and can) include this relationship and deal with it in order to create a more equal partnership.

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3.4 Governance processes and the failure of governance processes in Guinea, and alternative processes to face them

3.4.1 Governance processes

Governance is a complicated notion, defined differently by authors in the literature.

Here, we will focus on the definition given by Jan Kooiman, "Governance of and in modern societies is a mix of all kinds of governing efforts by all manner of social- political actors, public as well as private; occurring between them at different levels, in different governance modes and orders" (Kooiman, 2003, page 3). The multiplicity of actors involved in the development of the transport sector in Guinea, the complicated relations established between them, and the failure to plan the development of the transport network over the last few decades lead us to consider this issue of governance as essential.

Indeed, the previous paragraphs show that these relations between the actors evolve over time (particularly with Western countries and China today), and that the actors can be very different from each other, with different goals and means.

This idea is also developed by Kooiman: "Governing issues generally are not just public or private, they are frequently shared, and governing activity at all levels (from local to supra-national) is becoming diffused over various societal actors whose relationships with each others are constantly changing'" (Kooiman, 2003, page 3). The governance processes developed in the transport sector in Guinea are specific and unique, and the results observed are not able to meet the development expectations of the country and its citizens.

Thus, "there is a need to restructure governing responsibilities, tasks and activities, based upon differentiation and integration of various concerns and the agents representing them" (Kooiman, 2003, page 4), and thus a need to study these particular governance processes.

3.4.2 The failure governance processes in Guinea

As it was explained before, the transport sector is very important for the economic and social development of Guinea. The governance processes in this sector are very complicated due to the historical implication of western countries, and the recent implication of China.

These implications were supposed to foster the economic development of Guinea, but Diallo explains that “after fifty years of independence and notwithstanding several decades of official development assistance programs, Guinea’s economic performance remains mixed and far from satisfactory” (Diallo, 2007, page 211).

Indeed, the debt of the country (that represented US$ 3,261.2 million in 2004 according to him) is the main problem of this economic development.

Diallo explains that contracting a debt like that one is supposed to boost the economy of the country with suitable investment that will allow the country to cover its debt, but that it is not what happened in Guinea. As she says, “’the indebtedness phenomenon is a natural consequence of economic activities, due to the fact that some countries or institutions have financial surpluses and others financing needs” (Diallo, 2007, page 212), it represents the involvement of western countries and China in the development of transport infrastructure in Guinea.

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However, Diallo observes that this debt did not had a positive effect on the GDP growths of the country, and concludes that “investment and human capital development are the engines of growth, while the country does not benefit much from its opening up to trade and the depreciation of its currency” (Diallo, 2007, page 234).

She suggests to the government to adopt strong and coherent policies and institutional frameworks to improve the collaboration with the international community.

3.4.3 Alternative planning processes based on the involvement of citizens

Developing the institutional framework is a first way to improve these collaborations, but these governance processes can be changed more profoundly to lower their negative impacts. Increasing the access of citizens to these governance processes, through collaborative planning processes, is a way to improve these processes.

The evaluation of collaborative planning processes to assess the quality of these democracy processes is discussed by Agger and Löfgren (2008). Even if these processes are more and more famous and developed, they have to be correctly implemented to ensure their success. They define five criteria: “public access to political influence, public deliberation, development of adaptiveness, accountability and finally, the development of political identities and capabilities” (Agger and Löfgren, 2008, page 147) that must be assessed to evaluate the success of collaborative planning processes.

The idea of distributing access to planning more fairly is very important: being allowed to take part in decision-making (with a wide range of actors, not just the simple ones), is not everything, people also need the material power to do so.

Information is also an important matter, for all citizens who will be affected by the decisions of the actors. Agger and Löfgren raise the question of representation, especially the fact that it is often the richest people who have the time, education and money to participate in politics and decision-making. To solve the problems of governance processes and their adequacy with citizens’ need, collaborative planning processes cannot be a solution if they follow the inequalities and minorities already existing in the society. Strong interactions between the different stakeholders must be implemented to have good collaborative planning processes.

Gerry Stoker in “Governance as theory: five propositions” (1998) also conjures up this idea of interactions and networks. His fourth proposal, entitled "autonomous self-governing networks of actors” (Stoker, 1998, page 23) states that policies can be more efficient if we do not have state authority but rather these networks.

However, there is a lack of studies and solutions on resources management, especially in poor regions such as Guinea, and on the importance and role of non- state actors.

Andreas Faludi (2012) also examined these vertical interactions and explained that in the 1980s, multi-level territorial governance had emerged in EU governance theories, but that this point of view raised three different issues. Firstly, the redundancy of this expression: it was important to note that although multi-level governance was not qualified as "territorial", it did at some point include a reflection on territories. Secondly, Faludi explains the ambiguity of multilevel governance. In

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fact, EU policies use the words "multi-level governance" when talking about vertical administrative relations, whereas "governance" is intended to cover all types of collective action aimed at different types of actors.

This is a history of EU debates on the structure and levels of the organisation, including the question of the nature of state membership: are all Member States equal ("state-centred perspective"), or is it the creation of a superior entity ("supranational perspective") (Faludi, 2012, page 201)? The authors analyse the concept of multi-level governance to describe how this organization works: while States are important, different actors at different levels are responsible for decision-making, which must be linked to each other and to the executive branch of the State. The important thing is to establish networks, not to work side by side but together, and to move from multi-level polity to multi-level governance. This shift from government to governance is also described by Cars et al. in Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux (2002), and is directly related to the situation in Guinea: many stakeholders different from the state are involved in the decision making processes in the transport infrastructure projects, and multi- level governance can be seen as a solution.

3.4.4 Justice in planning and governance processes

Planning processes can create a lot of conflicts, especially regarding power issues and ethical considerations, and collaborative processes are not always the perfect solution regarding governance processes. Different articles show the different authors’ understanding of these perspectives.

Campbell, in "Just Planning: The Art of Situated Ethical Judgment" (2006) examines the notions of good, values, justice and ethics in the context of planning.

She explains that planning processes have not responded to the differences within and between companies: not all situations are the same and have their own complexity; this requires the theorization of complicated planning processes. Over the past decades, these different points of view have been taken into account by the various planners (who, at least, have tried to take them into account), as well as the "particularity of individual situations and contexts" (Campbell, 2006, page 93). Respect for the rights of the individual is also meaningful, but Campbell explains that these rights must be considered with a sense of collectivity: the collective and the individual will be strongly related and develop synergies. The rights of the individual should not be a threat to the well-being of the community.

This complex relationship between individual and collective rights can lead to planning conflicts, and intelligent planning processes must resolve these conflicts.

This notion of collectivity is also developed by Innes and Booher (2004), who explain how collaborative planning processes can fail, one of the reasons being the

“conflict between the individual and collective interest” (Innes and Booher, 2004, page 419), but also the necessity to everyone to have access to public participation. They denounce the real situation of public participation in the US, which is that “many voices are never heard” (Innes and Booher, 2004, page 419).

Vanessa Watson (2003), in studying the case of Crossroads districts in Cape Town, South Africa, mentions these same problems. This case study deals with the story of a group of women (the Women's Power Group) who was in conflict with authorities and decision makers. In order to create a new district in the city, they wanted to destroy their informal settlements. Watson explains how complicated such a situation can be. She describes how urban planners try to understand this

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multiculturalism and diversity, but are far from understanding this complexity. If they want to advance further on this issue, they should study less of the theoretical approach and “return to the concrete, to the empirical and to case research"

(Watson, 2003, page 396). This conflict described by Watson shows the specificity and incongruity of the motivations of the different actors involved in this struggle.

Indeed, the women of this group are in conflict with the authorities because the latter are composed of men who have not undergone circumcision. They are therefore not seen as real men by the local populations, according to their traditions.

This argument is not the only reason for the struggle between these two groups, which is much more complex, but this example is enough to show the complexity and specificity of the expectations and claims of the populations. Campbell explains that in Africa this situation is not unique, as traditional habits have to rub shoulders with Western institutions inherited from colonization.

Flyvbjerg, in "Bringing Power to Planning Research: One Researcher's Praxis Story" (2002), explains that the issue of power is central to all these planning processes. He recounts his experience as a member of the Regional Planning Authority, who had no power because his recommendations and the findings of his studies were not taken into account by those who made the final decisions. Thus, collaboration is not enough if collaboration remains consultative: the notion of power is essential. Haugaard (2003) also reflects on the importance of power, and defines seven different forms of power which can be used to deal with problems such as those described by Flyvbjerg.

Alternative governance processes in the transport sector of Guinea must be studied and assessed with this idea of power and justice in mind, to find appropriate ways of planning (specific to the situation of Guinea) to improve the social and economic development of the country.

Based on the findings from the literature review, this study aims to assess how current governance processes in transport projects in the Republic of Guinea align with the development needs of the country. Behind that can be enumerated four research questions that will be answered in the Chapter 6: Findings and analyzes:

1. How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?

2. Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?

3. How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?

4. What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?

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4 METHODOLOGY

The methodology of this research project is based on:

§ A comparative case study approach with two case studies: the Conakry Express and the Conakry-Kindia line.

§ Two methods: semi-structured interviews to collect primary data and a desk- based study to collect secondary data.

4.1 A comparative case study approach

This research project followed a comparative case study approach. Two specific case studies of transport projects in Guinea were conducted and involved description, assessment and comparison in order to have realistic and applied results on the question of these governance processes. The opportunities and threats generated by these two case studies are highlighted and analyzed in chapter 5 (case studies) and integrated in the results described in chapter 6. The number of two was chosen in order to have a plurality of case studies and neither a single one, neither too many case studies that would be simple descriptions and not analyzes. These two case studies involve different subsectors of the transport sector (transportation at a city scale and at the country scale), different actors (China and the private sector) and different issues representative of the transport sector:

§ 1^st case study: the Conakry Express, the public transport line between Kagbelen and Kaloum in Conakry. This line is an urban public transport line, the only public transport that exists in the suburbs of Conakry. The line was put into operation in 2010 and the project was financed by the CIF (China Investment Fund). The usage issues (waste on the rails, manifestations, sanitary issues) and the conflicts with the financing organization, the CIF, led to many traffic interruptions.

§ 2^nd case study: the Conakry-Kindia line (105 km), a train line used by SBK (Kindia Bauxite Company) since its creation. This mining company developed a train line for the transportation of goods, but people cannot use this line for their own transportation needs.

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4.2 Two methods to collect primary and secondary data

4.2.1 Desk based study

The first method of this research project to collect data is a desk-based study:

newspaper, websites and policy documents were a tool in order to obtain a documented analysis of the actual state of the governance processes in transport projects in Guinea, and the impacts of these processes.

4.2.1.1 Sectorial documents produced by the government

A first step to study the governance processes in the transport sector of Guinea, and their consequences on the development of the country, is to fully understand the state of the transportation sector and the actors involved in its development. To study and analyze the transport sector in Guinea, this research project used the Sectorial Political Letter from 2019 (mentioned in the next chapters as SPL, 2019).

This letter was written and published by the Guinean State, and is a way to have an actualized description of the transport sector and of the four subsectors (road, rail, maritime, airline). The multimodality between these subsectors is also described in this letter.

Then, another sectorial document that is used in this thesis is the National Transport Plan that was realized in 2002 by a group of transport experts for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Public Works of Guinea (mentioned in the next chapters as NTP, 2002). A National Transport Plan is something very specific in planning and this plan includes a description of the situation of the transport sector in 2002 and a list of projects that were planned in 2002 and were supposed to be implemented in the last 18 years. This list of projects is prioritized, and for each project the cost and actors responsible for the project are described.

Studying these two documents was a way to see what is the actual situation of the transport sector in Guinea, how it has evolved in 17 years (between 2002 and 2019), and who were the actors involved in the implementation (or non- implementation) of these transport project.

4.2.1.2 Newspapers

This desk-based study also used newspapers (on paper or online), which are the first way to get recent information about the current projects and problems of the transport sector in Guinea. Before searchers decide to look into these questions, journalists are the first witnesses of the situation in the country, and give most of the time the opinions and feelings of the citizens and stakeholders. They have to be used carefully in term of political involvement: an article in a newspaper is not a scientific article based on neutral principles. The origins and political actions and involvements of the different articles were considered in the analysis.

Most of these articles were from Guinean or African on-line newspapers, and used to fully understand and analyze the two case studies. It was indeed a way to know some problems or solutions that happen in Guinea and are enough important to be mentioned in the local newspapers. Some keywords related to these case studies were used, especially “Conakry Express”, “Kindia line”, “SBK”. The researches were done in French, as it is the language commonly used in Guinean newspapers.

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In particular, the one-line newspapers listed below were used, and short articles describing different steps of transport projects or local opinion on these projects were assessed:

§ Guineelibre, GuineeNews and GuineTime that published different articles about the Conakry Express between 2010 and 2020,

§ Kankan Radio that published articles regarding the implication of mining companies in local communities.

4.2.1.3 Websites

Finally, this desk-based study used websites of official and international organizations such as the United Nation database where actualized economic and social indicators can be found about Guinea that are relevant to this topic but also about the other developing countries in West Africa, in order to compare these indicators and analyze them. Indicators were compared (evolution during the last years, comparison with the neighboring countries, etc) and used to answer to the research questions.

These websites’ list included (non-exhaustive list):

§ United Nations data base about Guinea and ECOWAS countries;

§ World Bank, Systematic Country Diagnostic of the Republic of Guinea from 2018 (entitled “Overcoming Growth Stagnation To Reduce Poverty”);

§ Guinea Mining Symposium website;

§ Ministry of Mines and Geology website.

4.2.2 Semi-structured interviews

Then, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted during this research project to collect primary data. The seven persons interviewed can be gathered into two stakeholders’ groups: experts and users. These two groups provide different perspectives on the research questions:

§ Regarding question n°1 (Q1: How has the transport sector of Guinea evolved over the last decade?), a user of the transport sector is a witness of the physical changes that occur on the roads of the country, but also the price, the safety, etc. An expert will be more aware of the institutional, economic or political changes that happened, and will be able to analyze them.

§ Regarding question n°2 (Q2: Who are the key actors and what are the key processes in the transport sector in Guinea?), these two categories represent different actors of this transport sector, and have, at their different levels, different views of these processes.

§ Regarding question n°3 (Q3: How does transport governance align with and contradict the national development goals in the Republic of Guinea?), the development goals are not the same and will be perceived differently by a citizen who uses the transport sector on a daily base, or by an expert of the sector who takes an economical action in its development.

§ Regarding question n°4 (Q4: What are the opportunities to improve governance processes of the transport sector in Guinea?), the opportunities are not the same for the user and for the experts, as they do not have the same role in the development of the sector. They also do not have the same wills, and it is interesting to have the two groups in these interviews.