[sustran] poverty alleviation and basic mobility

[Jeff Turner]

Walter Hook wrote:

> I am currently working on a policy paper for the United Nations Development
> Program, and am seeking additional sources which quantify the relationship
> between urban transport policies and projects and urban poverty.  I have
> excellent rural data but am finding there to be little on transport and
> poverty in urban areas.   Any sources you may know of, I would be grateful. 

I am a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester specialising in
urban transport in developing countries. I have read with interest the
discussion about poverty alleviation and urban mobility over the last
week. I have also been heartened by the increasing importance of
transport in the urban policy debate as shown by its appearance at as
prominent a policy event as the `International Forum for Urban
Poverty'.  

I would like to contribute 2 comments to the discussion on possible
sources and consideration for any policy paper on this subject. Any
policy paper should mention:

1. The importance of the informal transport sector to the lives of
     low-income city dwellers in  developing countries.

2. The impact inadequate urban transport provision has on some members of
     low-income households, most notably women and children.

1. Myself and Ghanaian colleagues have conducted extensive research in
Accra, Ghana that looked at how low-income people travel. We found
that the informal public transport system, far from being, uniform,
chaotic and unresponsive to market demand was in fact 6 separate types
of public transport each with differing degrees of flexibility in
terms of cost, the degree of route flexibility and load-carrying
capability. In addition, there was a considerable commercial
non-motorised transport market of both human-powered trolleys and
human portering. The informal sector was a major source of employment
of men, women and children; its flexibility was crucial to the
operation of businesses in the informal sector as a whole; it provided
a choice of modes for low-income city dwellers that had fluctuating
income and served both as passenger transport and as a urban freight
distribution system. Despite such a system being closely attuned to
the demands of low-income city dwellers, it is a target of transport
policy only as subject which must be negatively controlled and
regulated and not something which should be positively supported.

F Amponsah, J Turner, M Grieco, A Kwablah and P Guitink (1996)
`Commercial non-motorised transport: Evidence from  Accra, Ghana'
.Transportation Research Record No. 1563, Washington DC. 

M.Grieco, N. Apt and J. Turner (1996) `At Christmas and on rainy days:
Travel, transport and the female traders of Accra'. Avebury Books,
Aldershot.

2. In this same series of research studies we explored the daily
routines of low-income households in Accra. Here we found that because
of failings in the informal transport in terms of its unreliable
journey times, as well as the poor provision of other urban services,
extra household labour was being required to undertake domestic tasks
so as to allow the most economically-active members the time
flexibility to travel around the city. This extra labour was being
found increasing the workload burden on women in the household; by
taking children, especially girl children away from their education;
by `fostering' children, a practice common in West Africa for use as
domestic helps and using older people to carry out domestic tasks. It
would appear that transport policies have a direct impact on the
ability of low-income households to survive, on the ability of
children to be educated and on the status and economic well-being of
women.

J . Turner, `Transport and survival strategies in an developing
economy: case evidence from Accra, Ghana'. Journal of Transport
Geography, Vol 4 No.3 September 1996         

Whilst these studies do not provide quantitative data - they do 
provide an insight into the role of transport policy on the urban 
poor.

Best regards

Jeff Turner
Tel No: +44 161 275 6948
Fax No: +44 161 275 6935
e-mail: Jeff.Turner at man.ac.uk