Publication:
Mainstreaming Gender in Road Transport : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.04 MB)
1,091 downloads
English Text (109.15 KB)
84 downloads
Published
2010-03
ISSN
Date
2014-03-28
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
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.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2010. Mainstreaming Gender in Road Transport : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff. Transport paper series;no. TP-28. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17455 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    The Health Benefits of Transport Projects : A Review of the World Bank Transport Sector Lending Portfolio
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Freeman, Peter; Mathur, Kavita
    This paper reviews the contribution of the World Bank's transport lending portfolio to health outcomes, as background for the Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG) evaluation of the Bank's support for health, nutrition and population (HNP). Over the past decade (FY97-06), the World Bank committed nearly $28 billion to 229 new transport projects managed by the Transport Sector Board (TSB). Specifically, the paper reviews the extent to which these projects: cite potential health benefits or risks in design documents; include specific objectives with respect to improving health outcomes or mitigating health risks; propose environmental improvements that are likely to provide health benefits; target transport services, and both health and behavioral outcomes to the poor; and plans to collect evidence on changes in health outcomes as a result of transport interventions. For completed projects, it assesses the extent to which expected health benefits or objectives have been achieved. This review of health benefits in the transport lending portfolio over the past decade shows that in the majority of the cases the focus has been on improvements in road safety, as measured by a reduction in the fatality or injury rates. Among the 55 projects with health related objectives, 82 percent had objectives to improve road safety, while only 7 percent had objectives to improve safety of other modes of transport and only 2 percent each had HIV/AIDS prevention or air quality improvement objectives.
  • Publication
    Improving Accessibility to Transport for People with Limited Mobility : A Practical Guidance Note
    (Washington, DC, 2013-05) World Bank
    This document aims to provide practical guidance on how best to include consideration of accessibility for People with Limited Mobility (PLM). While disabled people are a primary focus, the definition of PLM considered within this guidance note therefore also encompasses this broader range of users with mobility constraints and needs. Barriers to addressing the needs of PLM are often a product of a lack of information for transport professionals and facility designers, combined with limited resources. To assist client countries with implementing the principles and binding obligations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), it is clear that World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs) need to understand how to build in accessibility for disabled people in the design and implementation of transport projects. This guidance note therefore aims to aid World Bank TTLs when specifying and managing Bank funded transport projects in order to improve the accessibility of transport systems for PLM. It is intended to serve primarily as a point of reference for TTLs on how to include, and improve; the accessibility of PLM in Bank supported transport operations, as well as being useful for other organizations and government agencies. Following this introductory chapter, chapter two provides concise technical descriptions of different transport accessibility measures, of their costs, benefits and implementation issues, and of relevant standards and sources of further detailed design guidance. In chapter three these accessibility features are gathered into ranked lists to which TTLs may refer in order to see which measures represent low cost options, and those which are likely to have the best benefit/cost relationships. Chapter four sets out information on relevant regulatory and institutional framework issues. Chapter five summarizes potential funding sources and mechanisms for providing accessibility improvements for people with limited mobility. Finally, chapter six (operational road map) provides guidance on the process for designing accessibility into World Bank transport projects.
  • Publication
    Walk Urban : Demand, Constraints, and Measurement of the Urban Pedestrian Environment
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-04) Montgomery, Brittany; Roberts, Peter
    "Overall support for the pedestrian environment," or walk ability, has grown increasingly important as the world urbanizes and motorized modes threaten to displace or constrain travel on foot. This concern encompasses virtually every aspect of the pedestrian experience. Walk ability takes into account the quality of pedestrian facilities, roadway conditions, land use patterns, community support, security, and comfort for walking (Litman). Each of these facets of the pedestrian environment impacts the use of walking as a primary mode of transport. The complexity of the urban pedestrian environment naturally lends itself to micro-level analysis to locate the need for improvements; however, to gain an overview of a city, it is necessary to develop macro-level indicators that can identify the general state of the pedestrian environment. While these indicators cannot diagnose all walk ability problems, they can give a sense of how one urban area compares to another in similar circumstances and they have the potential for becoming an influential aspect of World Bank urban infrastructure diagnosis. Urban Transport indicators are being reviewed as one component of the current Transport Results Initiative which is led by the World Bank's central Transport Unit.
  • Publication
    Bus Rapid Transit Accessibility Guidelines
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007) Rickert, Tom
    In recent years helpful guides have appeared in both English and Spanish to assist planners and officials to construct accessible buildings and pedestrian infrastructure which are usable by seniors, persons with disabilities, and all others who especially benefit from universal design. Less has been written about access to public transport systems. Very little guidance is available concerning specific issues which confront those planning Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems, mass transit systems which incorporate a spectrum of design and operational features on integrated trunk and feeder routes and which were initiated in Latin America and are now spreading throughout the region and beyond. The guidelines focus on the BRT environment and assume that interested parties can take advantage of existing guidelines to clarify general issues of access to public space, buildings, and pedestrian infrastructure. The guidelines generally follow the travel path of a passenger using a full-featured Bus Rapid Transit system. The accessible travel chain begins with sidewalks and pedestrian crossings and continues into a typical mid-island station served by buses with left-side doors (in countries where traffic drives on the right side). Buses pull up to an enclosed station with a ramped platform the height of the bus floor. The guidelines then focus on station features, crossing the gap into the bus, and bus features. Due to the integrated nature of BRT, the guidelines focus equally on both trunk line and feeder line issues while acknowledging that a long-term planning process may be needed to identify funding for improved feeder line infrastructure and vehicles.
  • Publication
    Planning for the Laobaixing : Public Participation in Urban Transport Project, Liaoning, China
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-07) Chen, Wenling; Mehndiratta, Shomik Raj
    International experience suggests that in the realm of urban transport, a public participation process can be a valuable complement to the technical planning process in generating good projects with widespread distributional benefits that minimize concentration of adverse impacts. If properly designed, participation processes also offer an opportunity to incorporate the interests of vulnerable groups into the planning process. This paper presents a recent case study of a World Bank financed urban infrastructure improvement project in Liaoning, China, where the successful development of a meaningful public participation process influenced project design to better address the broad needs of the project beneficiaries. Particularly, the participatory process significantly influenced the project design and raised city leaders' sensitivity to public needs. Through the process the project shifted focus from major road expansion to secondary road improvements. Additionally, the participation processes picked up latent issues to better address needs of non-auto users, women and other urban vulnerable. The outcomes of the Liaoning participatory project indicate that a mainstreamed participatory process offers the potential to systematically reveal and address critical issues and public needs early in the planning process, which leads to higher value projects to accomplish investment goals.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03) World Bank Group
    This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.
  • Publication
    Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17) Wai-Poi, Matthew; Sosa, Mariano; Bachas, Pierre
    Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.
  • 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
    Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04) Zhang, Fan; Borja-Vega, Christian; Chandanpurkar, Hrishikesh Arvind; Famiglietti, James; Hogeboom, Rick; Namara, Regassa; Rasul, Zarif; Luengas-Sierra, Pavel; Rao, Deyu
    Grounded in new evidence from satellite data, “Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future” presents the first global assessment of freshwater reserves over the past two decades. The findings expose an alarming trend of “continental drying,” a persistent long-term decline in freshwater availability across vast landmasses. Not only are droughts and deluges becoming more unpredictable, but the total amount of freshwater available for use has also significantly declined. Continental drying, driven by global warming, worsening droughts, and unsustainable water and land use, is a silent but accelerating crisis—largely unknown to the public—that reshapes the global water narrative. Continental drying raises profound risks. This report reveals new empirical evidence showing how freshwater depletion leads to major job losses, reduced incomes, wildfires, and biodiversity threats. In the long term, the combined effects of drying and warming could push societies toward a tipping point where damage accelerates rapidly and adaptation becomes increasingly difficult. Against the backdrop of continental drying, global water consumption rose by 25 percent between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already experiencing drying. Compounding the pressure, a substantial share of water use in drying regions remains inefficient. Continental Drying identifies hot spots where rising demand and declining supply converge and explores where and how water savings can be realized. This report recommends a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: managing demand, augmenting water supply, and improving water allocation. Five cross-cutting levers—strengthening institutions, reforming water tariffs and repurposing subsidies, adopting water accounting, leveraging data and technological innovations, and valuing water in trade—are essential for effective implementation and to attract private investment to finance the approach. Beyond water, addressing trade barriers, investing in education and skills development, and improving access to markets and financial services are critical for strengthening job and livelihood resilience amid a continental drying crisis.
  • Publication
    Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12) Iimi, Atsushi
    Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.