Rural Access Program – Phase I
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Efforts of RAP to improve access |
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RAP is a poverty alleviation programme that aims to achieve this objective by improving the access of the poor and marginalized to the goods and services that they value. Experience has shown that the very poor find it difficult to benefit from improved infrastructure unless special help is provided. For these people RAP does more than simply improve physical access and is working to help them develop more sustainable livelihoods. Improvements to access are therefore intended to achieve in two ways: |
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The increased levels of conflict that have existed in Nepal since late 2001 have introduced a new dimension to the programme and RAP is well designed to address the social inequities that are the root cause of the conflict. In 2002 the programme was expanded to provide employment for an additional 4,000 people and in 2003/04 is expanding to bring a further 12,000 people as direct beneficiaries. All these new interventions are in seriously conflict-affected areas.
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Programme Districts and Components |
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RAP is implementing a programme of physical infrastructure interventions – roads,trails and footbridges – combined with a series of additional activities designed to allow poor people to take advantage of the new livelihoods opportunities created. The programme is operating initially in six districts: Bhojpur, Khotang and Sankhuwasabha in the East and Dailekh, Achham and Doti in the Far-west, and expanding to include Pyuthan, Rukum and Rolpa in the Mid-west and Terhathum in the East. The majority of people in these remote areas are poor by any definition and the access problems they face are clearly linked to poverty.
In addition to the district level interventions RAP is also working at the central level to influence policy towards an equitable system of infrastructure planning, to be supportive of the decentralisation process and to improve communications between stakeholders to ensure that lessons learned are fully disseminated. |
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RAP for Sustainable Livelihoods |
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Road construction is the entry point for RAP’s approach to poverty alleviation. In a gradual transition from road building into alternative longer term livelihoods, three years of construction is followed by an extended period of two years of further social and economic development. The income generated from construction, through savings and credit schemes operated by the programme, provides the base for future enterprise development, building on and sustaining the improvements to livelihoods that have accrued.
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Enhancing & Protecting Interventions |
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Enhancing and Protecting Interventions (EPIs) are designed to ensure that: | ||||||||||
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For the construction programme RAP directly employs labour groups that are selected from the poorest of the poor, and it is these groups that are the main focus for EPIs.
Protecting interventions take account of those who would suffer a loss of livelihood as a result of the physical access improvement, such as porters or those who lose land, and seek to provide alternative livelihood strategies for them. This can be done, for example, through work opportunity, skills training or alternative land provision. Enabling interventions are designed to empower the poor and include rights and gender awareness, numeracy and literacy classes and other community level advocacy. Enhancing interventions ensure capitalisation on the benefits from improved access. Knowledge and information sharing play a central role in informing people about the opportunities available for improving their livelihoods as a result of better access to goods and services. |
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Local Development Planning |
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RAP is promoting a modified form of the ILO’s Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning approach (IRAP). This is a local level planning tool that provides an objective basis for local development planning and facilitates needs-based project identification and prioritisation. RAP supports the districts to prepare transport master plans, in accordance with government requirements and procedures, using accessibility planning tools. |
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Engineering Approach |
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RAP follows the Green Roads approach, developed in Nepal in the early 1990s. The approach is labour-based and environmentally sound and incorporates:
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Sustainability of infrastructure is important to the sustainability of livelihoods improvements and care is taken to ensure that quality of construction, often overlooked in rural infrastructure projects, is maintained.
RAP also works to develop a maintenance culture and system in both DDC and community that will not only provide for sustainability of the infrastructure but also long-term employment for a proportion of the Road Building Groups. |
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Environmental Issues |
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Environmental assessment of road alignments at the planning stage seeks to avoid particularly sensitive areas. Where this cannot be achieved, appropriate mitigation measures are identified.
The phased approach to construction over three years allows the new construction to settle better into the fragile hill environment, resulting in a reduced environmental impact spread over a longer period of time. |
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Capacity Building |
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Efforts are concentrated on institutions at district level and below (DDCs, VDCs, CBOs and NGOs, and line agencies), as well as at central level. RAP works closely with DoLIDAR to assist it to fulfil its dual roles of technical guidance and planning support. It works with other relevant institutions to determine the type and level of assistance they require and develop appropriate responses. The skills and capacity of the RAP teams are used as far as possible to deliver training. Wherever possible the expertise available within the DDC, as well as the line agencies, and INGOs and NGOs working in the district, will be used. |
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Partner Institurions |
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RAP works through government. The main organisations involved include: |
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Partnerships |
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RAP was designed to be implemented in partnership with other programmes. | ||||||||||
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Good working relationships have also been built with other DFID programmes, most notably the Livelihoods and Forestry Programme and Community Literacy Programme | ||||||||||
Implementation Arrangements |
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The key features are : | ||||||||||
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RAP’s Support to the Districts |
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A project office has been set up in each district. Each office has a professional team providing technical support to the DDCs in the fields of planning, engineering and social development activities.
The DDCs, and DoR for the Feeder Roads, are responsible for implementing the main programme activities, with support from the RAP TA district teams. |