Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP) is a local-level planning process for improving access in rural areas through a participatory and bottom-up approach. It provides an objective basis for local development planning and facilitates needs-based project identification and prioritisation. As an area-based planning tool, IRAP focuses on identifying the real access needs of the community and prioritizes interventions and projects on a social and economic basis. Starting from a broader perspective of area development planning, it focuses on the planning of individual projects that improve the accessibility of rural people in general. Within the existing local-level planning system in Nepal, IRAP has been adapted to the country’s planning framework and can be used as an objective tool to complement the existing local-level planning system.
This Guideline describes how the generic IRAP tool has been adapted to the country’s context.