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Poverty Watch - Making Transport Count in Poverty Reduction
Poverty Watch is an IFRTD initiated programme that enables civil society to monitor transport investments and to encourage pro-poor transport policies.
Poverty Watch is building the capacity of stakeholders in developing countries to carry out analytical work on the links between transport and poverty and to implement this knowledge through policy advocacy or practical interventions.
Poverty Watch Key Principles:
- The transport sector is so strategic to economic and social development that it requires increased public accountability and regular auditing of its impact on poverty reduction.
- Prevailing economic and engineering models that guide decision making processes within the transport sector do not enable transport to deliver against broader development goals.
- Although transport has no direct impact on poverty it does play an important role supporting economic growth, and specifically helps poor people to develop their physical assets and to accumulate human, social, and political capital.
- It is rarely considered neccessary to subject transport sector policies and investment decisions to pro-poor analysis. This leads to economic and social differentiation and ultimately inequality and poverty.
Through this programme IFRTD affiliated networks in countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America are reviewing:
- the pro-poor agenda of national transport sector policies and ongoing transport investment programmes,
- the inclusion of mobility and access issues within key national development policies, for example - PRSPS or National Development Plans.
This process is enabling the networks to build a critical mass of interested stakeholders. The first step in the development of an informed civil society platform that is capable of debating the issues and identifying key priorities for a transport and poverty agenda in each country.
14 countries participated in the first phase of the Poverty Watch programme:
Africa - Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Senegal
Asia - Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal
Latin America - Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Perú.In these countries programme participants carried out studies to explore where and how existing national transport policies and strategies have interfaced with national poverty reduction efforts. These country reviews are available to download in the grey navigation bar to the right. Regional synthesis' which highlight the key issues emerging from these reviews are also available below:
Regional Synthesis for Latin America by Julio C Sanchez Uzeda and Ana Bravo Click here to download (Word doc 316kb)
Regional Synthesis for East and Southern Africa by Kenneth Odero and Peter Njenga Click here to download (Word doc 236kb)
Regional Synthesis for West and Central Africa by Bamba Thioye Click here to download (Word Doc 46kb)Phase 1 of Poverty Watch culminated in an international workshop in Nairobi Kenya, December 2005, to develop a Transport and Poverty Monitoring Framework. The workshop brought together a number of researchers from Africa, Asia and Latin America who had participated in the Poverty Watch programme. Click below to download the workshop report:
Poverty Watch Phase 1 international workshop report
Download (Word doc 160kb)
Poverty Watch Publications:
IFRTD Forum News Volume 12, Issue 4, February 2006.
An in-depth synthesis of the first phase of Poverty Watch including a presentation of the first draft of the Transport and Poverty Monitoring Framework.
Click here to download a copy (Acrobat 169kb)
Promoting Pro-Poor Transport Policies and Action in Sri Lanka by the Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development (2005) Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Click here to download more information on this publication or email the Lanka Forum Secretariat lfrtd@eol.lk
Click here to find out more about the Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development (LFRTD).
Transpolicy. Pro-poor Transport Policy. Meeting the Challenge in Zimbabwe (Feb 2005) by Kenneth Odero, The Zimbabwe Forum for Rural Transport and Development.
Click here to download a copy (554kb)Click here to find out more about the Zimbabwe Forum for Rural Transport and Development (ZFRTD)
For more information about the Poverty Watch Programme in your region please contact:
Peter Njenga, IFRTD Regional Coordinator for East and Southern Africa
peter.njenga@ifrtd.org
Ana Bravo, IFRTD Regional Coordinator for Latin America
ana.bravo@ifrtd.org
Ranjith de Silva, IFRTD Regional Coordinator for Asia
ranjith@ifrtd.org
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