Use of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches

The Rural Access Programme's guiding principles include being people centered, responsive and participatory, multi-leveled (micro to macro), flexible and sustainable. A range of socio-economic development indicators were used to select the districts to be involved. The project combined sectoral best practices and bottom-up planning to harness local will and promote local self-management. RAP aimed to provide sufficient flows of human, technical and financial resources to support district and local level initiatives during the design and implementation stages. It provided a planning framework through which to decide investment priorities based on locally defined needs.

The project aims identified are:

• To build the needs of the poor into the planning process at the district level
• To provide knowledge and information on sustainable enterprise opportunities
• To enable local institutions to plan, build, manage and maintain sustainable transport infrastructure in response to local needs
• To help create a policy environment within the rural transport sector that is supportive of effective rural access
• To establish channels of information to promote lesson learning by all stakeholders and other donors

As identified through field survey, local people, essentially the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, will form Road Building Groups (RGBs). Some 40,000 people are to be involved as members of RBGs. RAP trained development workers will provide support particularly for savings and credit schemes in the initial stages followed by livelihood activities during and after construction. Diffusion of knowledge, information and skills will play a central role in developing new opportunities, giving them access not just to a road but also to improved and sustainable livelihoods.

An independent monitoring and evaluation team was set up to regularly assess the project activities and the findings were used as the basis for managing change throughout the implementation phase. Impact evaluation is being carried out in order to assess the effectiveness of the program as an approach to poverty alleviation and for designing future program interventions.

The project highlighted as fundamental importance the diffusion of information within the program structure - down to the district teams - and beyond. A Documentation Center provides access to information for all staff, partners and other stakeholders.