[sustran] poverty alleviation and basic mobility

[Paul Barter]

On the issue of poverty alleviation and urban transport again.

The recent World Bank report: "Sustainable Transport: Priorities for Policy
Reform" published last year gives several pages to transport and poverty in
general with some mention of the urban poor in low and middle-income
countries. I know Walter is already familiar with this but in case others
are not I thought it might be helpful to highlight a few of their best
points. Although of course the WB is not the ultimate authority on this :-)

They mainly push the line that by stimulating economic growth, transport
investment can help the poor....  hmm..maybe..  but they also make a number
of more pertinent points.

p.31 "In urban areas the principal resource of the poor is their labor, and
adequate and affordable transport to work is therefore a critical
need....."

"Where incomes are very low in comparison with transport costs, a high
proportion of long walks to work is found, as in Nairobi (Oudho, 1992)".
This is important throughout Africa and South Asia and puts the magnitude
of the problem into perspective.

p.31 "Because planning skills and paradigms that are relevant to industrial
countries have been deployed in developing countries, priority has been
given to the provision of high mobility rather than basic accessibility.
This has favored persons who are already mobile, particularly vehicular
road-users."

p.72 "....Narrowly focused strategies oriented to growth of output tend to
increase dependence on the automobile [and motorcycles?], which in turn
tends to displace non-motorised transport and reduce the variety of public
transport available to the poor."    (This is a very important argument in
countries of all income levels)

p.72 "...The poor are also disproportionately displaced by the expansion of
rights-of-way for transport infrastructure or are less able to afford
higher prices as the transport sector becomes more commercial."
....... Ramon,  here is one connection between HOUSING RIGHTS activists'
agendas and people-centred/green transport agendas!  Doubly so, if for
various reasons the poorest theb end up on the far periphery of urban areas
with long arduous journeys to work, services, education, etc.

p.74 "One of the best ways to help the poor is thus to improve nonmotorised
transport. For the very poor, transport is walking, the security and
convenience of which should be protected and enhanced. Even more dramatic
improvement can be achieved by shifting from walking to cycling...."

They also have a reasonable section on eleminating gender bias in transport.

A. Rahman Paul Barter
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific (SUSTRAN)
c/- AP2000,  PO Box 12544,  50782 Kuala Lumpur,  Malaysia.
Fax: +60 3 253 2361,  E-mail: tkpb at barter.pc.my

PLEASE NOTE: From 19 May until 15 July I am in Perth, Australia.
During that time please reach me at <barter at central.murdoch.edu.au>