“The real energy crisis is rural women’s time”

An Unbalanced Load: Mainstreaming Gender in the New World Bank Transport Business Strategy:

Response by Marinke van Riet, Executive Secretary, International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD)

London, 22nd May 2008

Dear Mr. Juhel, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It has been two years since the World Bank consulted the Gender and Transport Network or GATNET on how to mainstream gender in what was then still a Draft Transport Strategy. As a member of GATNET, I feel honoured today to have been given the opportunity to respond to the final product.  It is considerably different from the mainstreamed strategy GATNET proposed but still offers us interesting gender and transport perspectives and important opportunities to move beyond rhetoric and to start to ‘walk the talk’. This is what I would like to focus our attention on today.

The title of my response “The real energy crisis is rural women’s time” is an appropriate follow-up on the climate change issues the previous respondent highlighted. Many of you will recognise this quote from Irene Tinker, the gender and development specialist. She made this statement in 1987 and I think it is important for us to reflect on its continued validity more than 20 years later.

Despite considerable research, including amongst others, the IFRTD coordinated ‘Balancing the Load’, and the World Bank’s ‘Integrating Gender into World Bank-financed Transport Programs’, today, seventy percent of goods transport in Africa  (predominantly agricultural) continues to be head-loaded; mainly by women who make up the majority of agricultural producers and transporters. In some areas this can take up to eight hours of a woman’s productive time, leaving little time to spend on income-generating activities and helping to achieve Millennium Goal One – the eradication of poverty and hunger.

In addition to time poverty, there is a clear link between distance to school and girls’ school enrollment, the latter being one of the indicators used to measure progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the third MDG. Every year over half a million women die of pregnancy-related complications and it is estimated that 75% of these maternal deaths could be prevented through timely access to essential health services and skilled birth attendants. As we all know reducing maternal mortality is the Millennium Development Goal that is most off track, yet there is a clear transport-related component that we still need to address.

II can continue listing bleak statistics for hours as they are numerous but I would be ‘causing’ my own mini-time and energy crisis, and I am sure the painted picture is clear: there continues to be an unbalanced load

Unfortunately despite several wake-up calls the transport sector, including the World Bank, has been slow in responding to this crisis, potentially due to the highly technocratic nature of the sector. The 2007 IEG evaluation on a decade of transport at the World Bank, states that the sector has demonstrated economic effectiveness and efficiency but on the flipside has ‘scored’ a very poor performance in social and gender dimensions. Another recent evaluation by IEG- titled “The health benefits of transport projects” was carried out to assess how the WB transport lending portfolio (1997-2006) has contributed to health outcomes. It was shown that of the 229 projects managed by the Transport Sector Board (totaling 29 billion US$) only 24% or 55 projects had explicit health objectives of which 45 focused on road safety. There was only one (!) project that focused explicitly on enhancing social inclusion through improved access to health facilities. And there were no projects that proposed health indicators specifically among the poor; and we can safely assume no health indicators among poor women either! 

Fortunately the new World Bank Transport Business Strategy offers hope on the horizon,  especially in the context of the wider World Bank-adopted Gender Action Plan titled Gender Equality as Smart Economics (2006-2010). In the latter there are specific gender and transport objectives combined with actions that need to be followed closely both internally and externally. The fact that the transport sector is now part of the Sustainable Development Vice Presidency within the Bank is a step in the right direction as they are responsible for ‘enhancing access of women and vulnerable groups to infrastructure services so that they are able to benefit equitably from those investments.’  In the new Transport Business Strategy, anchored in the MDG context, there is specific reference to transport for health and for education, the need for transport services in addition to road building and maintenance, renewed focus on linking rural transport and roads to increased agricultural outputs, inclusion of gender and disability into transport, focus on non-motorised means of transport and their potential impact on poverty reduction.

As is the case with all strategies, however, the proof is in the implementation. I would therefore like to dedicate the last part of my response to sharing ideas on how this can be done and how we, as civil society organisations, can help the World Bank to make this ambitious Strategy a reality. Most of the recommendations I will mention are taken from the 2003 studies on Integrating Gender into World Bank-financed transport programs and from a round table organised at the Bank in 2007 to brainstorm taking the gender and transport agenda forward.   We recommend:

  • Setting specific targets and benchmarks for an optimal transport lending portfolio that strikes an effective balance between roads, local infrastructure and services. The reality is that thus far in rural transport and infrastructure 90% of the annual 1 billion U$$ is spent on roads with the remainder spent on a combination of capacity building and services. Without specific targets for each strategic objective the World Bank runs the risk of continuing business as usual.
  • Ensuring that gender is an integrated component in the whole lifecycle of the project and not simply an add-on. This means from identification, preparation and design, appraisal (which includes gender-disaggregated analysis) to implementation and supervision and monitoring and evaluation, the needs of women and vulnerable groups are considered as equally valid and valued.
  • ‘Retrofitting’ gender into existing programmes as well as setting up a system of gender auditing which would be carried out at project, client as well as World Bank level to ensure gender is mainstreamed throughout. Civil society organisations in country, as well as international networks such as GATNET, could help to establish the internal and external monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that we need to ensure gender is mainstreamed.
  • Including dedicated social scientists with gender and transport expertise in transport teams and give them an equal voice.
  • Developing a gender and transport learning agenda for both social scientists as well as the transport sector (including the task managers at country office level), for the World Bank as well as its clients. This should include sound practices and knowledge sharing. Again networks such as GATNET, IFRTD and gTKP could be very helpful in disseminating information such as the Gender Resource Guide.    

These are just a few recommendations for implementation and I hope the World Bank follows them up. We are here to help as we need to make sure that, to use the World Bank’s own words, ‘transport is not just about roads; [but] is about development for people with different needs!Or as I learned this week from the disability sector and which I think isequally applicable to gender and transport ‘nothing about us, without us!’ 

The full document can be downloaded by clicking here.

Contact:

Marinke van Riet
Executive Secretary
International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD)
Email:              marinke.vanriet@ifrtd.org

Discuss:

Join Gatnet, the Gender, Equity and Transport Community. An online discussion group open to anyone with an interest in gender and transport issues. Find out more at www.dgroups.org/

For more information also see:

Balancing the Load, an IFRTD-Coordinated gender and transport research programme.

Gender and Transport Resource Guide, an online guide on how to mainstream gender in the transport sector.

 



Related news items



more...




more...



Peter Njenga: the significance of the new makete website




Call for Papers: Gender, Economic Integration and Cross Border Road Infrastructure Development


Children and Mobility - in their own words


CALL FOR ABSTRACTS - Gender and Cross Border Roads Development


Maternal Mortality Rates “Fallen to Zero” in Malawian Village


Join the I.T. Transport Associate Pool


Lessons Learnt from Community Bus Project in Sri Lanka


Executive Summary of the National Rural Transport Workshop in Burkina Faso


IFRTD Makes Submission to the UK's DFID White Paper Consultation


Taller Nacional en Burkina Faso: Transporte y Descentralización


SSATP Publishes a New Knowledge Product


Midwives on Motorbikes


Suspense Story


The State of Rural Transport and Development - An International Workshop



DANIDA introduces rural transport issues at universities in Benin


Announcing a 3 day international rural transport workshop


Mobility and Health in Nepal


Working Animals in the Aftermath of Disaster - TAWS/BVA Seminar


Building the Road to Prosperity


Call for Papers - Workshop on Gender Dimensions of Rural Employment


WTS London invites you for summer reception


Strategies and Tools for Gender and Agriculture - an ODI Event


Impact of fuel price rises in rural Sarawak


New Graduate Course in Gender, Transportation and Development


Bus services shun Zimbabwe's deteriorating roads


Transport Indicators Workshop in Central and West Africa


Transaid Project puts Women Market Traders Back in the Driving Seat


Poverty in South Africa Exacerbated by poor transport


Micro Credit Programme Addresses Rural Women's Transport Burden


Improved transport infrastructure in Malawi is key to rural development


The Papua New Guinea ‘Eastern Highlands, Women in Agriculture’ association call for greater assistance with getting produce to market


Social Roads - a new perspective for transport safety


Mexico City Rolls Out Women-Only Buses


Lake Transport in Benin - New Publication


WTS organises a round table on gender and transport in London


Culture puts the brake on women's mobility


Motorcycle ambulances in Malawi reduce maternal mortality


IFRTD participated in the 14th Road Safety Conference


Introducing rural transport in the university curricular


Maternal Mortality Hits the Headlines


New MDG Review Highlights Transport as Critical Catalyst



IFRTD Asia Held 6th Annual Regional Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam


Zimbabwe: Rural Commuters Are Going Nowhere


Cambodia National Community of Transport Practitioners (CNCTP) drafts their Strategy for 2007-2010


The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA)


From Mountain to Market


Regional Workshop on Animal Welfare


Taxis used to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in China


Announcing an International Symposium on Mobility and Health - October 2007


At the Crossroads: Which Way Now for the World Bank’s Transport strategy?


French Virtual Forum Announced.


New French Email Discussion Group for IFRTD Members


SEACAP Programme Update: Updating Cambodia's Rural Roads Policy


New Rural Transport Blog


PNG Network for Rural Transport and Development new newsletters online


Improving Access to Markets and Services in Bhutan


IFRTD Opinions Fair April Competition


Awareness Programme on Rural Transport for Heads of Local Government bodies in Sri Lanka


Gender Focus for the Village Bicycle Project in Ghana


Outcomes of the Africa Transport Safety Conference


Rural Transport Safety - Time for a Broader Debate?


Gender and Transport Resource Guide


New Strategic Plan 2006-2012 for the Network for Animal Traction and Integrated Development in Guinea


Training Workshop - Appropriate Technology Road Works for Enhanced Livelihoods


Children, Mobility and Transport in Sub-Saharan Africa



Women, Development and Transport in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa


Riding and Sliding for a better health!



Rural Transport Safety Studies- call for participation


The Makete Approach: From Pilot Project to Policy Impact and Institutionalisation



id21 insight on Rural Transport and the MDGs


Call for Expressions of Interest in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos


www.mobilityandhealth.org is live!



Call for Papers


Transport Safety and Mobility of Women and Children



Issues
     Agriculture
     Animal Traction
     Bicycles
     Children’s Mobility
     Community Participation
     Cross Border Trade
     Decentralisation
     Disability
     Education
     Employment
     Environment
     Gender
     Health
     HIV/AIDs
     ICTs
     Indicators
     IMTs
     IRAP
     Maintenance
     MDGs
     Mobility
     M&E
     Mobility as a Human Right
     Planning
     Policies
     Poverty
     Rural Roads
     Safety
     Transport Hubs
     Transport Services
     Waterways


News Items related to Gender and Transport


Site Navigation


Search the Site Search the IFRTD site  

 

 
Photos © IFRTD or Paul Starkey - Content © IFRTD