Eliminating poverty requires the reduction of isolation and social exclusion. It means improving mobility and access so that poor women, men and children can build their assets, reduce their vulnerability and develop sustainable livelihoods. Many of the world's poor live in rural areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America where there is a low density of demand for transport, rural infrastructure is poor, cash flows are seasonal, and means of mobility are generally arduous and time-consuming. If poverty is to be eradicated in these areas the vicious cycle of poverty and transport deprivation must be broken, and replaced with a virtuous cycle of greater mobility, stimulating more productive activities and diverse, sustainable transport services.
IFRTD's Improving Mobility Workshops were a series of 4 linked events held in Asia, Africa and Latin America to discuss how this can be done. The programme, co-funded by the World Bank, RTTP and DFID buillt upon consultations that fed into the publication:
'Improving Rural Mobility: Options for Developing Motorised and Non Motorised Transport in Rural Areas'
- prepared for the World Bank by P Starkey, S Ellis, J Hine, and A Ternell (2002).
- Download: Acrobat pdf 631 kb
- Situation review and problem analysis.
- Prioritisation of options for intervention.
- Field visit to consider local practicalities and priorities.
- Output oriented group work to develop realistic proposals for individual and joint action that will make an impact.
The workshops were held in India, Tanzania, Guinea, and Nicaragua. The proceedings from each workshop are available in hard copy from the IFRTD Secretariat. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to obtain a copy. They can also be downloaded here:
- Download Proceedings of the Asia Workshop - Word doc 3.83MB
- Download Proceedings of the East and Southern Africa Workshop
- Download Proceedings of the West and Central Africa Workshop (French)
- Download Proceedings of the Latin America Workshop (Spanish) - Acrobat pdf 610 kb