Gender Mainstreaming in Rural Road Construction and Usage in Ethiopia: Impact & Implications

The engagement of men, women spouses and women heads-of-household in the planning and construction of rural roads in Tigray and Amhara

Abstract

This study investigated the engagement of men, women spouses (WS) and women heads-of-household (WHH) in the planning and construction of rural roads in two Ethiopian districts of Tigray and Amhara, and the differential impacts of rural roads on the mobility and transport of men, WS and WHH. The fieldwork established that there is a strong demand among women for both road use and employment opportunities in road construction. Compared with men, women demonstrated specific priorities with respect to rural road development, such as access to ambulance services, flat, wide and levelled roads, and improved access to means of transport. Although women’s concerns have been slowly but steadily pushed up the planning agenda, there are gaps between gender provision in rural road development and implementation. The benefits of roads for women can be enhanced by targeting gender mainstreaming provisions to take into account the specific travel and transport needs of WS and WHH.

This work is part of the Applied Research on Rural Roads and Transport Services through Community Access Programmes in Africa and Asia (AFCAP2 and AsCAP)

Citation

Abraham Abhishek, Cecilia Borgia, Kebede Manjur, Frank van Steenbergen, and Letty Fajardo Vera (2019). Gender Mainstreaming in Rural Road Construction and Usage in Ethiopia: Impact & Implications. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Transport. (https://doi.org/10.1680/jtran.18.00154)

Gender Mainstreaming in Rural Road Construction and Usage in Ethiopia: Impact & Implications

Updates to this page

Published 31 July 2019