Access to Transport

Overview

The world trade is growing – regarding its worth and volume: in 2012 more than 150 million containers were sent, in 2011 the worth of goods was about 18 billion US$. However, in many countries the development is hindered by trade: in basic routs in sub-sahara Africa the prices for freighttransport are as double as high as in the EU or USA – because of cartels, bureaucratic obstacles and lacking infrastructure.
Moreover, lacking access to markets due to poor roads in rural areas as well as postharvest losses slow the agricultural productivity with consequences on food security.

At the same time more than 900 million people lack access to all-weather roads what means no access to markets, medicals or schools, especially during rainy seasons.

This article gives an overview about the challenges regarding access to transport in rural areas, its significance and consequences for rural development and the possible approaches of international cooperation on strengthening the access to transport and rural development.

Challenge: The Lack of Access to Transport

The following picture gives an overview about the key links between access to transport and rural economic development and food security.

Accessing Transport - Key links to food security and economic development

In the following, a few regional examples for a clearer view:
Access - From Farm to Market:

In India, at least 50% of the production of fruits and vegetables is lost due to wastage and value destruction, with lack of adequate transport being one among the multiple causes. Annual costs estimated at 5 billion US$ .(Ahsan 2006, 133)
Access - From Small Villages to Rural Towns:

More than 900m People worldwide lack access to all-weather roads. The risk of death during giving birth is 36times higher for women in developing countries, not least to the lack of access to medical treatment (WHO 2010)

Trade Infrastructure:
Average costs for container handling (ship-to-gate) in East Africa are US$135–275, compared to only US$80–154 in the rest of the world (AICD 2008)

Trade Corridors:
29 % of total transport costs for getting a truck load of onions from Madaoua, Niger to Accra, Ghana are caused by corruption (Bromley et al 2011)
Landlocked countries in Africa may lose the equivalent of up to 40% of the export on high transport costs (Naudé/Matthee 2007)

Mobility and Rural Development

Economic and social development in rural areas depend on various factors –a very significant one is surely the access to transport infrastructure and transportation services. Development of the transport sector leads to increase in factor productivity in various sectors by increasing accessibility and reducing transport costs. Without the access to transport an insufficient amount of goods and services is accessible to people as well as agricultural products can't be transported to markets, nor pupils to schools or ill people to hospitals. Moreover, exchange relationsships between rural and urban areas as well as social and political participation depend on an effective transportation system. In this context rural infrastructure and accessibility of local markets as well as interregional linkages of import and export might be considered.

The significance of transport will be explained more thouroughly through the following two articles:

1. Access to basic services and mobility of people
2. Economic Perspective of Rural Transport: Access to Agricultural Equipment and Markets
   

Within the planning process an intensive cooperation between the sectors of transportation and rural development is required. The aspect of financiation not only regarding the construction, but also the maintainance of transport infrastructure might be considered, if mobility should stay a long term development-enhancing factor. Furthermore, the consequences of climate change are of significance for planning and maintaining road infrastructure.

Environment and Security

Negative Sides of Transport Infrastructure

The transport sector generates negative externalitie that may have a substantial negative impact on the environment through pollution and congestion, health, safety and other related aspects. Transport infrastructure that
opens up mineral deposits and forest frontiers damages the natural habitat, and reduced forests contribute to the degradation of the environment.
Exhaust emissions from transport operations are among the major sources of pollution. Very often the poor take a heavier burden of the negative externalities. While it may not be possible to avoid such externalities, it is possible to decrease their current level of production and reduce their negative effects through new technologies and other intervention/mitigation measures in the sector. For example, the burden of accident costs on the poor can be reduced significantly by improving road safety standards and achieving the related targets.

Further Information

• Portal:Mobility

Further information on Transport and Rural Development:

Transport Division (TD) & Asian Institute of Transport Development (2000): Impact of Rural Infrastructure Investment. – In: Evaluation of Infrastructural Interventions for Rural Poverty Alleviation. – pp. 29-44: http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_1959/rurpov_ch3.pdf