Publication:
Pathways to Development : Empowering local women to build a more equitable future in Vietnam

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.52 MB)
265 downloads
English Text (27.23 KB)
41 downloads
Published
2012-01
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Vietnam's economic emergence is perhaps best experienced along its rural roads: over 175,000 km of pavement, rubble and dirt track extend to two-thirds of the country's population and nearly all of the poorest people, who live among its productive farms, lush forests and meandering river valleys. The World Bank's Third Rural Transport Project (RTP3) identified missing links that left many rural Vietnamese communities off the map from the country's remarkable development successes. The project prioritized road maintenance and local infrastructure management above new construction projects, and collaborated with the government institutions to address steep increases in travel costs per kilometer across crumbling rural roads. Project staff identified barriers along the route to more accessible road networks, including a lack of incentives to local bureaucracies to regularly maintain rural roads in remote areas. This situation has lead to deteriorating roads in places that are desperate for improved access to goods, services and social networks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2012. Pathways to Development : Empowering local women to build a more equitable future in Vietnam. Social Development Notes. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10063 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Pathways to Development Empowering Local Women to Build a More Equitable Future in Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09) Tran, Phuong Thi Minh
    Vietnam's economic emergence is perhaps best experienced along its rural roads: over 175,000 kilometers of pavement, rubble, and dirt track extend to two-thirds of the country's population, including nearly all of the poorest people, who live among its productive farms, lush forests, and meandering river valleys. In recent years, road investments in Vietnam's rural areas have improved socioeconomic development and have promoted gender equity, social participation, improved school attendance, and more inclusive health services to impoverished regions. However, all but a few hundred communes remain off-grid, and infrastructural roadblocks and bureaucratic potholes have delayed the goal of a fully integrated road system. The World Bank's Third Rural Transport Project (RTP3) supported a win-win solution: employing ethnic minority women to sustainably manage road maintenance through an innovative participatory approach to local development. This smart lesson describes the experience of improving the roads and women's lives in rural Vietnam.
  • Publication
    Rethinking Infrastructure Delivery: Case Study of a Green, Inclusive, and Cost-effective Road Program in Nicaragua
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Muzira, Stephen; Hernandez de Diaz, Damaris
    This paper presents a development case study on alternative thinking in rural infrastructure delivery. Delivery in this case is achieved in a manner that advances the green growth, social inclusion and cost-effectiveness agendas. The need for green and inclusive approaches in reaching development goals cannot be overstated. At the same time, the use of public funds should ensure value for money and stretch government resources as far as they can go. Inclusion refers to the empowerment of all citizens to participate in, and benefit from the development process, removing barriers against those who are often excluded. The use of a community development approach is presented in this paper to demonstrate how this has been achieved on large scale and in a cost-effective way without compromising quality or timing. Heightened roles and responsibilities are conferred to the local target authorities and populations in this infrastructure delivery approach, and this experience is presented as a best practice that could be emulated in similar development work. On the technical front, most road infrastructure delivery in many countries is heavily mechanized and undertaken using default asphalt surfacing. This paper presents the adoption of an alternative and green paving material that is also cost-effective at the secondary rural road level.
  • Publication
    Surfacing Alternatives for Unsealed Rural Roads
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-05) Henning, Theuns; Kadar, Peter; Bennett, Christopher R.
    Despite extensive road construction programs over the last century, a substantial proportion of roads remained unsealed especially in developing and emerging economies. As these economies develop, the demand arises to seal previously unsealed roads. The most economical transition point between unsealed and sealed roads depends on many conditions that need to be evaluated. The purpose of this Note is to provide guidance for decision makers, engineers and administrators on selecting the most appropriate surface for unsealed road given the prevailing conditions. It is based on the report "Surfacing Alternatives for Unsealed Roads" (report 37192).
  • Publication
    Investigation and Analysis of Natural Hazard Impacts on Linear Infrastructure in Southern Kyrgyzstan : Desk and Field Studies Report
    (Washington, DC, 2008-12) World Bank
    This report presents the findings of a study of geohazards along 850 km of roads in Southern Kyrgyzstan (KG) and their potential impact on road rehabilitation projects throughout the country. This report presents the findings of a short "fact finding" study on geological hazards (or geohazards) as they relate to ongoing and future planned road rehabilitation projects throughout KG and provides recommendations on activities that could be carried out in KG over the coming years in order to utilize the expertise and data available in country in order to facilitate and improve road design and monitoring/mitigation of geohazard impacts. Section two provides an introduction to the report and section three provides background information behind the study, the objectives and a brief description of the scope of work. Section four describes geohazards in general and details those specifically threatening road developments in KG. Section five describes current road design practices and codes and standards within KG while. Section six discussed briefly the potential economic consequences of geohazards on major roads in KG. Section seven discusses geohard design, mitigation and monitoring of geohazards and presents two examples of detailed geohazard assessment and design and construction techniques developed in other countries. Sections eight and nine present the conclusions and recommendations arising from the study. References are listed in section ten.
  • Publication
    Mainstreaming Gender in Road Transport : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff
    (Washington, DC, 2010-03) World Bank
    The paper aims to provide guidance for both transport and gender specialists on how to mainstream gender-related considerations into road transport projects to improve development effectiveness, sustainability and to reduce gender inequality. The paper draws attention to the most basic ways in which gender affects and is affected by transport policies and projects and provides practical approaches to address gender-related problems in road transport projects. Women and men have different travel and transport needs due to their different social and economic roles and activities. Women also face different constraints than men in accessing, using and paying for transport services. Transport can play a significant role in ameliorating or exacerbating the life conditions of women, particularly when poor and living in developing countries, depending on the extent to which gender differences are taken into account. The paper provides examples of entry points for mainstreaming gender into various road project contexts in urban, rural areas, highlighting documented good practices in this area. The paper identifies opportunities where women can play a role in the planning and implementation of road transport operations, particularly through participatory approaches and labor-based road construction. Included is an innovative table that presents examples of data and indicators to be collected for creating a baseline and for measuring results at the project level.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.