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Community Participation in Transport Management – An International Workshop

Cajamarca, Peru - April 4-7 2005

This workshop aimed to highlight the potential benefits and inherent challenges of ensuring community participation in rural transport interventions. The bi-lingual event held in Cajamarca. Peru, was hosted by IFRTD and ITDG and co-funded by the European Commission.

The international workshop was the culmination of the first phase of ITDG’s 2 year international transport programme co-funded by the EC, and an opportunity for ITDG and other organisations working on similar programmes to share their experiences, isolate lessons learnt and recommend strategies for promoting good practice.

The Workshop attracted participants from 14 countries across Latin America, Asia and Africa, representing the breadth of the transport sector from NGO’s to government transport programmes. Select presentations and extensive group work enabled participants to debate issues and share experience of good practice, with field trips to the communities of Cumbe Mayo & Huanico providing the focal case studies.

Overall participants recognised common problems across continents and recognised that the transport sector needs to look externally to learn from other sectors that have already tackled the issue of community participation. Key challenges identified included understanding how communities can effectively influence policy makers, and how to raise awareness at community level of the importance of planning for maintenance. The dearth of good practice case studies available to encourage replication and learning was highlighted as a gap that can be filled. The workshop has proved that useful experiences within the transport sector are yet to be shared. Participants committed to various strategies to take the workshop learning forward including information/experience gathering and dissemination, networking, and awareness raising activities.

The full workshop report in English and Spanish will be available on the IFRTD website shortly. The IFRTD website will also soon feature an issue page on community participation highlighting issues raised within the workshop and a databank of good practice case studies relating to community participation in transport interventions.

For more information please contact:

Ana Bravo
IFRTD Regional Coordinator Latin America
Email: ana.bravo@ifrtd.org

Saúl Ramírez
ITDG Latin America
Email: saul@itdg.org.pe

Castinaldo Núñez
ITDG Cajamarca
Email: cnunez@itdg.org.pe