Employment impact assessment of Luangwa-Mwami road, part of the interregional Nacala Road Corridor Project, Zambia

This report presents an employment impact assessment (EmpIA) of Phase 2 of the Nacala Road Corridor Project (NRCP) in Zambia, in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), which co-financed the construction of the corridor. The corridor is fed by the Great East Road, a project financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Geographic information systems (GIS) data and methods were applied to assess the long-term economic and employment impacts of the project. Night-time lights (NTL) satellite imagery was the main dataset used, which provides a measure of light emissions at night and can be applied as a proxy for economic activity in the form of GDP. The treated road that was worked on as part of the corridor project was compared to untreated roads in the province that had similar characteristics but did not receive any intervention. The increase in NTL brightness was compared pre- and post-treatment, whilst controlling for population, conflicts and other variables to analyze the economic impact of the road’s rehabilitation. The increase in NTL was translated into GDP based on the national level elasticity, and then further translated into employment using an indirect approach to estimate the percentage increase in employment caused by the improved road.

The study builds upon previous assessments conducted by the STRENGTHEN2 project and adds to the literature on utilizing night-time lights data to measure the impacts of transport infrastructure. It highlights the applicability of using satellite data to measure the economic and employment impacts of infrastructure investments in SSA.