Employment-intensive technology (EIT), also referred to as labour-based, is a term used to describe technologies giving precedence to manual methods with simple tools, while supplementing it with appropriate equipment when needed, taking into account quality and cost. EIT promotes fair, local employment, as well as producing and maintaining infrastructure to a specified standard in a cost-effective manner.
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| Rural Ugandans building their own road with simple tools |
Advantages of employment-intensive construction
Employment-intensive technology has huge socio-economic benefits; it gives the rural poor an opportunity to gain basic skills and earn a income; creation of local enterprises; and gives a means for better HIV education in rural areas. Importantly, satisfactory quality standards can be achieved and better maintenance achieved with the local community involved from the offset. Local resources can be used, it requires a low capital investment and labourers can more easily adapt to adverse weather conditions.
Disadvantages of employment-intensive construction
Construction is sl
ower than mechanised construction and it is not usually suitable for highly trafficked roads. Not necessarily suitable to funding programs or as wide a range of technologies e.g. bitumen sealing.
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| Some tasks are better suited to men, e.g. excavation. Simple tools are often supplemented with basic tractors, trailers, hand-pushed rollers etc. |
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| The soil from the drains being used to create the camber. |
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| Culvert in construction |
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| Simple, locally made templates to check the gradient of the camber |
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