The High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research programme, funded by UK-Aid, carried out research into the development and improvement of sustainable transport infrastructures across Africa and South Asia. Its findings aimed to help inform the decisions of policy-makers and planners to make road and rail transport greener, safer and more inclusive, and to enable well-informed investment decisions which will grow economies and improve lives.
But safe, reliable and affordable rural transport infrastructure also plays a key role in driving economic development and poverty reduction. Low volume roads (LVR) are a crucial part of the road network in rural parts of most low-income countries (LICs), with approximately 50% of the world’s population directly dependent on them for access to basic facilities as well as markets and employment opportunities. But not all rural road projects succeed in delivering growth or reducing poverty, often due to a lack of thorough research into underlying sociodemographic and governance issues. For this reason, investment in the development of rural roads by governments, NGOs or development banks is increasingly preceded by research into the needs of rural communities.
This approach has been implemented by the Research for Community Access Partnership, ReCAP, another UK Aid-funded research programme. ReCAP aims to improve accessibility for poor and disadvantaged rural communities in Africa (AfCAP) and Asia (AsCAP) to economic opportunities and services through improvements to rural infrastructure and transport. The immediate focus is on strengthening the evidence base on more cost effective and reliable low volume road and transport services, with a view to influencing policy and practice.
A key output of the programme is the ReCAP rural access library which contains reports and case studies detailing rural road projects. The library is free to access and its resources offer guidance on how to identify and respond to the mobility needs of rural communities in LICs.
As part of a collaborative project, AfCAP has also produced a user-friendly software tool specifically tailored to the upgrading of LVRs to a paved standard using the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP). The Low Volume Roads DCP Software can be downloaded and is accompanied by a help file.