[rts] Comments on RTS

[Joaquín Caraballo]

Dear colleagues,

I am Joaquín Caraballo, Consultant, working primarily in Central and South America, President of the Latin America IFRTD Forum, with experience in economic evaluation of rural transport and infrastructure projects. 

I would like to insist on my contribution to the forum, with some general comments, that I have extracted from my list sent earlier, so that you all receive them, and hopefully center the discussion on "the real thing":

It is apparent that there is basic agreement among the participants, regarding the best practice for rural transport projects - stakeholders, citizen participation in planning, decision-making, and financing (in order to gain commitment and ownership), using an iterative top-down and bottom-to top approach, participation of many agencies, the role of NGOs, the importance of rural accessibility, interdisciplinary approach, and so forth.

Regarding implementation of RTS and the introduction of IMTs, I consider that one of the main issues are:

1. The real willingness of International Organizations and local governments to finance and promote rural transport (not only infrastructure). Here we should differentiate among the following groups, since the specific interests differ quite considerably among them:

- Large Banks and multilateral IFIs 
- Bilateral donors 
- NGOs
- The local governments (primarily in regards to assigning funds to poor , rural population). Many times there is a class struggle that controls the amount of resources assigned to "lesser class" population.

It is important to say that large organizations (the World Bank, for instance), produce a large number of publications, guides and policy papers supporting and indicating the importance of rural transport, and indicating procedures to achieve implementation of good projects. However, this is not usually reflected in the amount of resources assigned to RTS or the number of rural transport projects. Sometimes, it is considered that they are cumbersome, complicated, they require too much time and administrative efforts, and so forth, and as a result, few of them are done.

There is some investment in rural highway infrastructure, but this is not the same as RTS.

Lastly, I would like to mention that while there are many studies and research done in Africa and Asia, the projects in Latin America are just a few. It would be nice if the IFIs such as the World Bank or the IADB could start a "maintenance initiative" or "rural transport initiative" in Latin America, as it was done in Africa.

These are some of my ideas for the time being. I do not want to burden you with a long text. Regards.Joaquín Caraballo

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From: "Ranjith de Silva" <ranjith at itdg.lanka.net>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 09:49:29 +1000
To: rtslist at gn.apc.org
Subject: [rts] Community  participation

Dear Friends,

My name is Ranjith de Silva. I am the Senior Specialist - Transport, of the
Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) and coordinate the transport
work across the Group and with international organisation.

I am sorry for the late joining due to other commitments.

ITDG's field level experience on "participation" could be useful for this
discussion. ITDG has interesting experiences across the countries, particularly
in Sri Lanka. 

As Paul and Charles point out, transport can not be taken in isolation in
development. It links with almost everything. The sustainability of transport
technologies or interventions is dependant on the links attached to many other
things. The women who saved time on collecting water and firewood, in Kajiado
district in Kenya now wants to grow cash crops using drip irrigation systems
using the extra water available. As a result of introducing "Rain-fed farming"
to poor farmers in West Sudan new transport needs have come up and transport
needs were not considered in the planning stages of this food production
project.

Participation

ITDG defines participation as participation of all stakeholders. Community
participation in roads projects should not be limited to providing of labour.
Participation is very high during construction work as people get paid. This is
not real participation. They should have the authority, ownership and
participating in decision making processes. To do this the capacities of
communities, community based organisations and local authorities has to be
strengthened. 

Participation of stakeholders depend on their needs. The community need may be
to have an access road. The need of the local authorities could be find a way
to construct and maintain the rural roads under their purview with the limited
financial resources they have. The need of the local or provincial level policy
makers will be trying to find a method to solve the rural road construction and
maintenance crisis. The capacities of local level NGOs working in rural areas
has to be built to handle such situations and community mobilising.

The national level policy maker-participation is one of the most important in
trying to promote appropriate approaches for rural development. Active NFG
members who work with ITDG, are often exposed to field projects to get a
"feeling" and are regularly updated o the progress. 

Regards.

Ranjith


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