Africa, Transport and the Millennium Development Goals (PDF)

Transport is an essential service that must contribute to national development objectives in health, education, agriculture and other sectors in guiding sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty. Developing policies aimed at providing safe, reliable and affordable transport infrastructure and services can and will make a substantial and sustainable contribution to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, improving health care and reducing HIV/AIDS. Although transport is identified as a priority in poverty reduction strategies, it has not generally been adequately addressed. Global responses tend to focus on rural transport infrastructure-principally roads-with little attention given to sub-sectors such as rivers, lakes, and railroads; and important geographical and econological differences are ignored. The needs of the urban poor have been weakly addressed, as have the access and mobility needs of women, the disabled and other disadvantaged groups, while strategies for adapting transport to agricultural production/distribution or social services (e.g. health and education) have not been adequately developed. A systematic approach to the development of sound, comprehensive transport sector programs that provide clear guidance on what is to be done is much needed. This volume-the product of an expert workshop held at Cornell University's Institute for African Development in May, 2007-provides accounts of an array of African operational spaces in which transport is relevant to the Millennium Development Goals. It addresses many heretofore ignored dimesions of transport-mobility issues of the urban poor, of women and children, and issues of access to employment, education and health services. It provides an alignment of transport with the MDGs in what proves to be fertile ground for research with important messages for policy makers and consequences for policy.