1.    LOGISTICS
2.    AVIATION
3.    GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS(GIS) 

LOGISTICS

DRC Fuels Survey

The UNJLC Fuel Expert is currently carrying out a fuel survey on the DRC.  This is including the current supply chain and where bottlenecks occur.  The initial conclusions are that the supply chain was designed to meet the countries commercial and domestic needs.  No significant investment has taken place over the past 10 years and therefore the fabric of the system is showing the signs of the neglect.  However to the credit of those involved the system grinds on and is remarkable as to the condition and what it is still capable of producing.

The rail service, which is a critical part of the supply chain, is very scarce and suffers from a lack of investment.  Trains do not run due to a lack of money to purchase diesel and the rail car and engines need constant attention. 
Privatisation of railways could pave the way for recapitalization of operators and for opening large parts of DRC to investors which will be welcomed but that is two / three years before a realistic increase in performance can be expected.

The river transport is in better shape but again shows strain from a lack of investment.  It is not expected until the oil exploration to extract shale oil starts and no contracts for the exploration of block have been placed.

The supply from the East is subjected to the constraints of the Kenya Pipeline and that is running at 98% capacity.  Plans are in place to increase the pumping stations that will in turn increase the outputs but again that is 2 years until completion.

The most immediate area that would increase the capability of the supply chain would be an investment in the road programme  Other countries have invested in similar projects with huge success in opening up the economy and developing a road based fuel supply chain that requires less investment to show results.
The fuel survey is expected to be completed within the next two weeks and will be distributed to partners and published on UNJLC Web Site.

Bridges assessments in Northern  Katanga

An assessment team comprised of UNJLC, IOM, DRC department of planning and the Office of Roads will carry out assessments of bridges on 25 July in Northern Katanga. MONUC will arrange a special flight. The aim of this mission is to get technical information on two key collapsed bridges in that area and provide technical solutions for their timely rehabilitation.
Bridges status has so far critically limited the transport of humanitarian cargo from Lubumbashi to North Katanga (Mitwaba, Dubie, Sampwe, and Malemba Nkulu). The UN agencies and NGOs have resorted to air transport which is very costly.

AVIATION

Post-Evaluation of commercial air carriers

In 2005, UNJLC was requested by the DSRSG and the Humanitarian Coordinator to facilitate an evaluation of local air carriers to assess if they meet the required standards to transport UN staff members.

In that respect, six air carriers were evaluated in December 2005 by experts from IATA, WFP Air Safety and DRC Civil Aviation Authority. The findings of the report were three out of the six companies, namely Hewa Bora, Filair and Air Tropiques closely met the standards of the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO). The IATA experts have made to each evaluated air carrier the recommendations required to comply with ICAO standards.

UNJLC followed-up the implementation of recommendation from March to June 2006 and a post-evaluation is currently under preparation to take place in early September 2006, Expected  findings will assist the Humanitarian Coordinator to decide authorized private air companies for UN staff.
     

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Mapping

UNJLC has drawn the maps of all the provinces of the DRC (North and South Kivus, Maniema, Katanga, Kassai Oriental and Occidental, Equateur, Bandundu, Bas Congo- Kinshasa, Province Orientale and district of Ituri. The map of road rehabilitation projects and the map of roads conditions and classification in Katanga have been updated.

The digital versions of all maps drawn by UNJLC are available online via http://www.unjlc.org/DRC/maps/.

UNJLC is continuously requested by many organisations to provide printed forms of maps. Current funding is limiting UNJLC' offer. IOM has ordered 70 maps of provinces on a cost recovery basis; these maps will be used by the electoral observers of the European Union.

Updating of the common geo-database

The common geo-database has been updated with the data on the state of the road between Mitwaba and Sampwe gathered by WFP and data on the province of Katanga provided by GTZ, and the DRC Ministry of planning.

UNJLC GIS officer also entered data on protected areas in the country as well as data on the condition of river ports provided by CICOS (Commission Internationale du Bassin Congo Oubangui Sangua).

GIS Working group activities

GIS Working Group (UNJLC, MONUC, OCHA, OSFAC CARPE, Cellule Infrastructures and Office des Routes) met on 06th of July 2006. That meeting aimed at drawing up an inventory of the existing data on bridges and ferries countrywide and discussing on its digitization.

More than 24, 000 bridges and 325 ferries exist throughout the DRC. Despite the fact that bridges and ferries can be a major bottleneck in DRC, their existence and the information on their condition is rarely reported on Geographic Information tools such as maps.

The aim of this working group is to gather all relevant information and further consolidate the common geo-database.