ASi" kUCTURE FlOR DEVELOPMENT

Box 4.6 Women can benefit from inforastructure,'but success lies in the details
The beneficia impacts of infratructure on women can various countries, including Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho,
be profoDund, often ex%tending beyond the commonly Madagascr, and Tanzania, reveals that fmany poor
cited ipcts of water and.sanitation infrastructure on women welcome such emnployment opportunities and
household health or women's time allocation. But ensur- are able to perform the same tasks as men for similar
ing such outcomes requires foresight and attention to de-: wages. To expand women's participation in these projtail
during project planning. -- ects, eligibflity conditions must be extended, and job op-'
Women,. as principal producers and miarketer of portunities must be advertised more widely. In addition
food -in many African countries, benefit from the im- theme should be scope for advancement by women to suproved
access to markets that rural roads bring; Yet uin-. pervisory positions. Where maintenance is contracted
less they can afford to ftrnsport thick prodiuce by truck, out women's groups should be encouraged to bid for
goods must be carried to markets by the farmers contracts.
themselves. This sharply diminishes benefits from road Predicting. the impact of infr-astructure on women can
infrstructure. -Intermediate(no-nmotorized)
-means of be difficult and requires a dlose understanding of the detransport
such as bicydes arndcarts, can be attractive al- tails of their activities, opportunities, and constraints. In
temnatives to bead portage but involveihigh initial invest- . central Gambia, agricultur traditionally involved both
ment costs. In Ghana a pilot component administered by women and men within a system of coexisting commu-
NGOs in tie Second Transport Rehabilitationt Projec nat and individual-cultivation. -Men were responsible for
channels pa-rt of the wage earnings from labor- organizing the communal subsistejce cultivation of upl-
*intenigve road works to finance hire-purchase programs land cereals, with both men wamd women contributin
for intermediate means of transport.
labor, while women alone were responsible for cultivathin
many countries, destitute women are eager to par- ing and miarketing rice from individual plots. A rice irriticipate
in road works programs that off-er them opportu- gation project. w-as introuced, distribuftin 1,500
nities to earn cash. In one of Bangladesh's main road hectres of irrigated land'to farming households. An exmaintenance
programns, women comprise tin bulk of the plicit intention of the project was to improve the ecoworkforce,
byut in Kenya's Rural'Access Roads Program, nomic sbtats of the femnale cultivators by raising their inone
of the oldest and most successful of such.programs comes fr-om higher.rice yields. However, mnale farmers
in Africa, less than 20 percent of the workforce are became interested in rice cultivation for commnercial purwomen.
Similarly lowv participation rates for women poses and laid -claim to the irrigated land for their comhave
been observed in other African countries. Although munally farmed plots. While women did benefit from
it is sometimes argued that low partcipation by African the project through the higher incomes accruing at the
women is due to their already oppressive burden of do- household level, their position as producers and marmestic
duties and subsistence agriculture, evidence from keters of rice was undermined.
. -. : prducrs lomcn .a ald pricipl markter of ortnitis mst b aderEsd mre wdel. lnaddfio
CooRDiNATIoN oF PLANNING. Coordination of prices that reflect costs provide valuable informaplans
for, competing or complementary sectors, is
also imortauL -here program and project finanction
for decisionmaking on sectoral allocations.
Wh-en the-local highwyaecdcidtoxpn
ing involves many donor agencies, coordination trucking cargo capacity to the port of Santos in
preserves overall coherence of activities. In Africa Brazil, shippers pited out that rail transport was
efforts to imnprove donor coordination hin trantsport dieaper, and the railway and the railhead river port
have beent embodied in recent initiatives (Box 4.7). capacity were expanded instead. In China, the
With transport, intermoclal coordination is often Henan Power Company', after evaluating-the costs
required. The stress on speed and reliability in of expanding power gene-ration capacity in the Yan-.
modern-day freight transport is makding it increas- shi Themal Power Project, changed its initial profingly
vital for shippers, to be able to offer door-to-
*door service, comnyinvolving many. modes. It.
posal from locating the coal-fired powver station
near load cnesand suapplying it with coal by rail
* ~~is necessary to establish a legal framework that al- to siting the station near coal mines and transmidtlows
'freight forwarders to accept liability for the ting electricity to the load centers.
entire transport chain. In addition, customs procedures
in many developing country podts must be ProErAPASLTcnqe o rjecta
simplified to avoid delays that can significantly praialt are well estabirshed and-docurented, but in
raise transport costs and undermbine the intemna- practice they are not widely applied- Although fortional
competitiveness of local producers. . mal cost-benefit analysis of projects inposes non-
Although governmeenLs are often tempted to in- neglgible analytical and data demands, these techter
lene rin price-setting across modes or sectors, niques bring rational, objective, and, to the extent