Rural accessibility is the only metric used in the Sustainable Development Goals to track progress toward better transport services in low- and middle-income countries. This paper estimates the rural accessibility index, defined as the proportion of the rural population who live within 2...

Projects involving community participation often give communities responsibility to identify, prioritize, plan and implement small-scale investments. While the approach generates high ownership and relevance, it has often been considered inappropriate for large infrastructure projects with...

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...

The objective of this note is to advise on an appropriate economic appraisal methodology that should be used for the assessment of Low Volume Rural Roads - that is roads upon which less than 200 motorized vehicles per day travel. Section 1 of this note sets out the reasons that Low Volume Rural...

This paper analyzes the effects of all-weather rural roads on households' net output prices, education and health in a poor, drought-prone region of India. Of 30 villages originally surveyed in 2001-02, when two had such roads, a further nine received them between January 2007 and December 2009...

India's rural roads program, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, aims to draw villagers into the mainstream by improving not only their terms of trade, but also their educational attainments and health. Treating each all-weather feeder road as an isolated element within the larger network, and...

All-weather rural roads usually improve not only villagers' terms of trade, but also their educational attainments and health. Obtaining empirical estimates of the benefits generated by the first is straightforward, not so those generated by the others. The object of this paper is to estimate...