The Acting Director of Feeder Roads at the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, IngTamba K. Amara was awarded a price for the Most Outstanding Research Paper for developing Countries at the 26th World Road Congress at Abu Dabi in The United Arab Emirate.

The World Road Congress is indisputably the biggest forum of roads engineers worldwide held since 1908. The event is held every four years with the aim of sharing techniques worldwide in the field of road infrastructure and road transport.

Ing Tamba K Amara was one of the four recipients that co-authored the winning paper at the presentation on the theme “Economic Growth through Effective Road Assets Management”. The other members of the award were; Mr. Robert Geddes - Director, Civil Design Solution, Zimbabwe (Lead Author), Dr (Mrs) Emmerentian Mbabazi – Research Fellow, Ugandan National Roads Authority and Mr. Presley Chilonda, Principal Materials Engineer – Zambia Roads Development Agency

The paper was among several presentations on diverse topics in the road and transport sectors worldwide. It was written based on research projects jointly carried out in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia and the Western cape of South Africa. The research was funded by the United Kingdom Department for International development through the Research for Community Access partnership (ReCAP) that is supporting a research programme for the rural transport sector in Africa and Asia.

The research was undertaken between 2016 and 2019 and its findings emphasized the need for good assets management practice for cost effective and reliable low volume roads and transport service provision. It also devised a series of tools that can be used to measure and monitor the performance of roads agencies in the management of roads assets.