Rural Access Infrastructure

Access interventions are defined by their favourable impact on the need for rural travel and transport. These interventions diminish the socio-economic isolation of the rural population and hence contribute to the reduction of their poverty.

The access needs are met by the appropriate location of services or facilities, the provision of transport infrastructure and rural mobility, and creating an enabling environment for rural travel and transport. The key access interventions may be categorised in the following groups.

Rural Infrastructure • Improvement or development of tracks, foot paths and foot bridges; • Rehabilitation of selected roads through community participation to a maintainable and safe standard. Rural Transport/Mobility • Improvement of efficiency of existing low-cost Intermediate Means of Transport (IMT); • Development or introduction of alternative low- cost IMT; • Development or introduction of water borne means of transport.

Enabling Environment for Rural Mobility • Facilitating credits to purchase IMT e.g. animal drawn carts, bicycles, donkeys; • Facilitating transport services by improving their operation and management system and increasing their availability; • Providing training for production and maintenance of IMTs.

Accessible Locations and Sites for Facilities and Services

Environmentally Friendly Measures

Interventions that contribute to the improvement of the environment in the rural areas such as the development of woodlots for fuel consumption.

Major achievements on Rural Accessibility Planning and Access Interventions

• Pilot projects and research/studies on IRAP carried out in Asia and Africa have led to: • A broad understanding of the complexity and seriousness of access and mobility problems in rural areas; • An extensive information regarding pattern of rural travel and transport and its burden on the rural households in general and on women and children in particular; • Data survey procedure and questionnaires for application at household, village, ward, district, province and national levels; • A detailed data base which can be used for rural development planning; • Guidelines on IRAP methodology with global application; • Guidelines on gender issues in the IRAP; • Training manuals on rural infrastructure improvement and maintenance e.g. footpaths, track and footbridges.

The role of the ILO

The International Labour Organization (ILO), in pursuit of its strategies regarding poverty reduction and employment generation, has been providing technical assistance in support of Rural Accessibility. The assistance includes:

The ILO has been working in collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Forum for Rural Transport Development (IFRTD), the World Bank, the Government of Netherlands and Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG).