Balancing the Load was initiated in 1996 with the aim of filling in the gaps in our knowledge about how gender relations affect women and men's access to goods and services and influence the provision of transport infrastructure and services.
At the time the immense volume of analytical work emanating from the gender and development programmes of universities and development agencies world-wide did not seem to have permeated the consciousness of transport providers, planners and policy makers including those working on rural transport issues. Similarly although gender analysis was rapidly becoming integrated into rural development work, planners and practitioners still rarely addressed the issues of access and mobility. The Balancing the Load programme was conceived with the aim of bringing these two groups together.
Download the proceedings of the regional seminars in Asia and Africa that were the culmination of the research programme: