During the past 20 years, nearly a quarter of the capital invested in Sub-Saharan Africa's roads has been eroded through insufficient maintenance. To restore economically justified roads and prevent further deterioration new requires annual expenditures of about $1.5 billion. The main problems affecting road maintenance are institutional and financial, although there are also a number of technical, organizational, and human resource problems which contribute to poor road maintenance policies. The experience gained under Africa's Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI), suggests that the policy reforms required to overcome these problems need to focus on reforms in four-main areas: (i) creating ownership and commitment; (ii) identifying a stable source of finance; (iii) clarifying who is responsible for what; and (iv) commercializing management of roads.