15.1 The scope for community engagement under different roads programs

vulnerable groups, and future generations. Unless measures are in place to build resilience, climate change will exacerbate these differences, and many opportunities to improve livelihoods could be permanently lost. When local economies offer insufficient opportunities, many more people will inevitably fall into poverty or worse.

These guidelines argue that roads programs themselves are one resource, like water and the land, that can be managed to directly support livelihoods, connectivity, and resilience. The enormous sums expended on roads can support communities in many ways: through labor-based roads works to support incomes; through programs that encourage workers to save and invest earnings in new livelihoods that are supported by the road, such as acquiring cattle or farming equipment; by introducing new agricultural and aquaculture techniques that use road-water management to enhance farm incomes; by storing water for later use; by managing water flows to enhance rangeland and reduce the harms from flooding; and by enhancing the climate resilience of the roads and natural landscape that communities depend upon.

Because roads programs can shape every corner of a country, they have tremendous potential to bring about positive change. But road agencies and their staff must first better understand the opportunities that roads and transport can bring. Once road agencies develop this appreciation, they can reorient from the limited task of putting infrastructure into place toward a focus on engaging communities more deeply to achieve the full range of beneficial impacts that roads programs could have. Table 15.1 outlines this transformation. all this amounts to a new vision of rural roads as development vectors, as breakthroughs for change, and as instruments for inclusive climate resilience and green growth. Roads should be seen as more than transport lines: they are engines for change and diverse and inclusive local development. Recognizing and investing in all the opportunities that road development presents (including transport, credit, water and trees, and business skills and visions), roads programs can bring tremendous change and opportunity to people’s doorsteps.

TABLE 15.1 The scope for community engagement under different roads programs

PROGRAM ROADS PROGRAM OBJECTIVES COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Traditional roads programs Adaptive or proactive resilience

Adaptive or proactive resilience plus a focus on livelihoods Install roads and protect them from water and climate events

Integrate roads into the landscape; balance resilience of roads and other natural resources; preserve land and water resources for community use; protect natural and pristine areas

The same as adaptive or proactive roads programs, plus integrate program support for livelihood opportunities, local business development, and farmers Limited to slight modification of the design; waterlogging and other harms are often resolved only after emerging, if at all Identify water management opportunities and challenges; determine road alignments for proactive measures; select water-harvesting, storage, and cross-drainage measures that protect resources and enhance livelihoods; train farmers and others to use the road-water management system to boost their livelihoods; establish systems for communities to manage assets such as farm ponds The same as for adaptive or proactive resilience, plus creating mechanisms to facilitate hiring of local laborers for road works when works are mechanized; enhancing livelihood opportunities through labor-based works; combining labor opportunities with programs that encourage workers to save earnings and invest in assets that enhance their livelihoods after the road is completed; identifying other local needs such as transport services, small logistic parks where produce can be processed and packaged for higher value sale, or other ways to support the local economy

• Roads open up access for marketing of rural goods and services. Market access is enhanced when road development is paired with access to local transport services. Local transport can range from carts, bikes, and motorbikes to taxis, small buses, and trucks. Roads can also lead to development of “cooperative aggregators” that help farmers access tools, seed, and fertilizer to enhance farm productivity and help ensure farmers have ready buyers for produce.

The combination of roads and transport services can be transformative for rural economies. for instance, agriculture amounts to 15 percent of the gross domestic product of sub-saharan africa, but many farmers lack access to roads and cannot easily sell produce to nearby urban areas. Processing, packaging, and transporting produce is often vital to boosting farmers’ incomes.

Reliable transport infrastructure and services can open up whole areas and increase their competitiveness. • Road development and road maintenance can create direct labor opportunities.

Local labor employment can be a “shot in the arm” for the local economy.

There are many examples of labor-based approaches that serve this objective.

The labor-based cut and fill method used in nepal (see box 6.1), for instance, creates 26,000 labor days per kilometer, helps introduce safety procedures and equal pay for women, and is a best environmental practice. Road development may be designed to create labor opportunities for the most vulnerable and for youth. Once people have money in hand, they will spend it locally, and a multiplier of local expenditures and transactions may start to work. • Roads programs can directly support development of new livelihood opportunities. an even stronger case can be made for roads programs that support development of new livelihood opportunities that can be sustained after the road works are completed. for example, laborers may have incentives to reinvest earnings into farm equipment, livestock, or other productive assets that leverage improved access to transport and water resources resulting from the roads program. Roads programs will ideally support sustained, longterm improvement in rural livelihoods. • Road development also boosts the development of local business. Roadside stalls, bars, and hairdressers often benefit immediately, but businesses that support local livelihoods also tend to emerge over time. The initial boost to the local economy eventually supports new businesses such as hardware shops, repairers, agro-vet dealers, storage facilities, financial services, transport service providers, and others (photo 15.1). This second wave of development often depends on building a critical mass of economic activity locally. In

Ethiopia, one study found that 77 percent of businesses emerged only after road development (nega and Hussein 2016). Roads programs can further invest in local production and services by systematically sourcing through local businesses, by stimulating local value chains, and by promoting more business development in areas made newly accessible by roads. • Road development can change the physical environment for the better. a survey of 162 households living within 2.5 kilometers of a road in Tigray, Ethiopia, found that 49 percent complained that the dust affected health and crop production (see the section titled “Objective” in chapter 12); 41 percent complained that floods from the roads affected their houses and cropland, 34 percent had witnessed erosion, 21 percent had seen some sediment deposits in their land, and 9 percent complained of waterlogging in some sections along the road. Environmental impacts of roads are thus significant