Rural Transport

Building on the transport indicators workshop series – a virtual forum in Latin America

From the 2^nd to the 20^th of July 2007 a virtual discussion workshop –supported by gTKP- was held through the ifrtdal@dgroups.org which is a list-serv for people in Latin America interested in transport issues. The list is accessible via www.dgroups.org/groups/ifrtdal

The virtual discussion was organised in light of sharing the results of a workshop on transport indicators that was held in Peru in March 2007. In collaboration with the World Bank’s Transport and Social Responsibility thematic group, IFRTD and selected local partners have been collaborating to host a series of regional workshops to review the measures and indicators that are used in the transport sector. The workshops aim to raise awareness of the initiative among key stakeholders and invite contributions to the process to ensure that it accounts for national priorities and long term sustainability. 

The virtual discussion was meant as an additional tool for dissemination as well as to enrich the debate with new perspectives. Facilitators were contracted –from the member base- to facilitate the whole process.  Every week, a thought-provoking paper was shared through the egroup, to introduce the subject and trigger responses and debate.  General conclusions would be drawn from the different topics and a synthesis prepared for each topic which was also shared through the ifrtdal and web.

A background document on basic concepts of transport indicators was prepared at the beginning of the virtual workshop-forum.  By the end of the third week it was enriched thanks to the contribution of all participants.  The full document –only in Spanish- is available here

The following topics on transport indicators were considered relevant:

• Energy:  consumption, efficiency, etc.
• Infrastructure:  road maintenance, technical specifications of rural roads
• Employment:  employment and quality of life
• Financing:  budget for conservation and rehabilitation of rural roads
• Safety:  number of simple accidents, accidents with fatal victims and cost of accidents
• Environment:  emissions, noise levels, those under Agenda 21, etc.
• Gender:  inclusion, participation, etc.

The Rural Access Index discussed in the blog of June 2007 "measures the number of people that live within a ratio of 2 Km (typically equivalent to a walk of 20 to 25 minutes) from an all-weather road, as a proportion of the total rural population. The participants felt that the variables to be added are age, gender, type of activity and frequency of travel.  The energy consumption may also be added (Kcal x Km) which can in itself be improved by including gender and age.

The RAI was taken to debate river transport.  It was proposed that river transport measures the number of people that live within a ratio of XX Km of a river way, who have access to a safe and efficient means of transport which is economically accessible.  It was added that in areas like the Amazon, road and water transport are complementarity, therefore multi modal transport is important to meet the conditions of passability and efficiency.  An indicator for the means of water transport would be ton - km - HP of the boat and number of people adequately set.

In an urban setting the introductory document challenged the way urbanisation is measured, with urban transport indicators as old as nearly 40 years and measuring very little with little innovation.  This is in contrast with the fast urbanisation in the region.  The facilitator also talked about dispersed and concentrated population in urban and rural areas and population density as a distinguishing factor.  Why talk about rural access and urban mobility in the World Bank databases?  What happens to urban access and rural mobility?  Do they not exist?  What would be the 'urban' version of the RAI?

For more information the full workshop report is available here http://www.ifrtd.org/new/proj/virtual_workshop_LAtransport_indicators.pdf

Bridging the language divide: sharing the experiences of French-speaking Africa

In an effort to ensure that transport practitioners in French-speaking Africa can also share experiences IFRTD –with the support of gTKP- has set up a French electronic discussion group called IFRTD Transport Rural. Set up on dgroups, the list serv is accessible via http://www.dgroups.org/groups/IFRTDtransportrural and is open for all (French-speaking) people interested in rural transport issues.

During three weeks in July a virtual discussion was held focussing on issues relating to rural transport services. The discussion centred around three issues.

1. What type of technology is best suited for what means of transport?
2. Improvements and the reliability of rural transport services 
3. Rural transport safety

Each week centred around one of these issues and every topic was introduced with background information, photos and sub-questions to allow the participants to share experiences, ask questions and trigger discussions. Moderated by Vero Razafintsalama from Lalana, an NGO based in Madagascar and specialised in transport issues, twenty-seven participants from eleven different countries followed and/or participated in the rich and lively virtual debates.

The first week focussed on issues around preferences, adopted technology related to transport needs. In Madagascar for example there have been successful bicycle interventions that were initially meant for transporting people and instead were increasingly used for transporting heavy goods over long distances. This was done without any adaptation and resulted in visible improvements in income for certain users.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) it was noted that the existing hypothesis about increased motorised traffic after rehabilitation of rural roads proved false. Instead they observed that bicycle usage increased and were the main IMTs from villages and/or fields to the main road where big trucks were waiting to be loaded. In addition some traders preferred to travel by truck themselves while their cargo was transported on bicycles. ‘Bicycles are faster and can leave at once, while trucks have to wait until full’ was the logical explanation. As a local adaptation bicycles were lengthened to carry up to 200 kilos heavy load or a small sun umbrella to protect the cyclist from the harsh sun. It was common that the trader would walk alongside the bicycle often for long distances.

In North Cameroon the complementarity of various transport services was especially noteworthy. Buses operated by the municipality served very precise routes while taxis served outlying areas of the locality. The motorbikes served to extend the bus and taxi routes by serving more isolated zones. This complementarity also applied to costs and transport of cargo

The participants also discussed the various modes to transport the sick to health clinics. The pro’s and con’s of motorbike ambulances versus bicycle ambulances were discussed and various experiences of Ranger and Riders for Health shared.

Overall the discussions illustrated the big knowledge gap that exists between Francophone and Anglophone Africa and that not enough resources are available for translation and knowledge sharing through workshops. A positive development is the SDC/Skat workshop that will be organised in Chad in September 2007 to enable French-speaking transport experts to network and share experiences. This workshop combined with the new list serv will hopefully help reduce the gap a little but it is obvious that a lot more resources need to be invested in order to close the gap completely!

To join the discussions:

http://www.dgroups.org/groups/IFRTDtransportrural