Jalalabad, Afghanistan – July 27, 2009 – The IRD Strategic Provincial Roads-Southern and Eastern Afghanistan (SPR-SEA) program, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), successfully concluded a Construction Management and Engineering Essentials training series for Afghan engineering staff under its Mentor-Protégé Program. Through this capacity building initiative, IRD’s local construction teams have been trained to employ professional engineering and program management standards to achieve the infrastructure goals and one of the core objectives of the SPR-SEA Program, increased capacity for sustainable road construction.

In order to maximize local input, IRD has adopted a unique approach to utilize a local workforce and resources. This method allows the team to take advantage of existing relationships between staff and local government bodies and communities, as well as benefit from invaluable local knowledge on topography and regional challenges that can be planned for. It also supports the goal of creating a sense of ownership of the roads and other infrastructure works being built in the target communities.

To complement this and build upon the existing skill sets of 62 key field engineers and construction managers, IRD partnered with the Champion Technical Training Center (CTTC) in Jalalabad to deliver three six-day rounds of training. The course topics included construction management, surveying and layout, construction estimating, material testing, scheduling, quality control and assurance, and soil classification. Sessions began with classroom instruction and concluded with practical, hands-on training for each subject.

Based on a comparison of pre-training and post-training examination scores, the average increase in learning for all three rounds of training was 25 percent, demonstrating a stronger capacity of key staff to deliver infrastructure works through better planning and more effective techniques.

IRD’s local construction teams are now better equipped with the appropriate skill sets to help build roads in Afghanistan. This value-adding endeavor will not only support effective implementation of the program but will also benefit participants beyond the life of the program.