A Means to an end: transport and the Millennium Development Goals

Making sure rural farmers can get their produce to market; delivering emergency obstetric care to women in labour; providing safe journeys to school for children – concerns such as these resonate throughout the Commonwealth, but most significantly in our developing nations where they represent key measures towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Access and mobility issues are implicit in almost all aspects of development, yet curiously the MDGs make no explicit reference to transport.

A wealth of evidence underlines transport’s potential as a key catalyst in the delivery of the MDGs. Here we explore the critical relationship between transport and each of the goals and look at the challenges that we need to overcome to enable transport to maximise its potential and fulfil a catalytic role in the delivery of the MDGs by the 2015 deadline.

A Means to an end: transport and the Millennium Development Goals
By Kate Czuczman, International Forum for Rural Transport and Development, 2008.
Published in the Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book - 2008. 
Download: Acrobat pdf 303 kb

Click here to view the full Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2008 online.