GENDER AND TRANSPORT RESOURCE GUIDE  
Introduction
MODULE 1:
Why Gender and Transport?
MODULE 2:
Challenges for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport
MODULE 3:
Promising Approaches for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport
MODULE 4:
Gender and Rural Transport Initiative (GRTI)
MODULE 5:
Tools for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport
MODULE 6:
Resources for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport
Acknowledgements
 
Module 5: Tools for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport
Intro |  1  |  2  | Part 3 |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14 

5.3. Gender-Responsive Approaches: Participatory Techniques



Participatory techniques are important tools for helping to initiate a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives and the decisions and resources which effect them.*

A participatory approach is inclusive of all different social, ethnic groups, and women/girls and men/boys.

*Source: Participation Source Book. Chapter 1. World Bank. 1996.

Guidelines for Promoting Community Participation

  • Project/programs should be flexibly designed to accommodate existing local organization and changes
  • Projects should make maximum use of indigenous knowledge and materials
  • Catalysts (promoters) should be used to help strengthen community organizations and participation
  • Bureaucratic re-orientation through training and other methods is needed so that bureaucrats will be able to work with local groups rather than see them as a threat. Involving communities in decision making is very important
  • Participatory approaches are intimately linked to decentralized development, thus achievement of significant community involvement depends on the willingness to delegate authority to local government
  • Implementation procedures must be designed to ensure participation of particular sections of the community such as women ad other groups that are economically/politically weak
  • Training to develop both skills and attitudes needed in community participation promotion is important
  • A concerted effort must be made to identify and promote community leaders.
From GRTI Uganda Workshop for Engineers on Gender Responsive Policy Report

Obstacles to Community Participation

  • Some government officials are not willing to change their established perspectives and procedures to allow the sharing of information and decision-making. As a result, the programs they initiate are often designed and implemented without adequate and sufficient consideration of the particular community's needs or human/financial capacities.
  • Poverty restricts the poor, especially women, from participating in and benefiting from intended community based programs. Most of the time the poor are struggling to survive, or have little time to attend to project meetings.
  • Heterogeneity along economic, racial, ethnic, religious, political lines and the culturally biased gender factor all hinder the participation of a community as a whole.
  • Frequent political changes damage the potential for community participation because programs of a participatory nature don't have time to nurture government staff who then become hesitant and communities become sceptical
  • Some staff members from central and local governments, especially the technicians, have not been trained in participatory skills.
From GRTI Uganda Workshop for Engineers on Gender Responsive Policy Report

Stages in Participatory Rural Planning

Developing a Local Government Transport Master Plan
  • Identification and consultation of key stakeholders
  • Definition of planning objectives
  • Definition of rural access needs that relate to these objectives
  • Collection of data on relevant access needs & priorities, and production of an accessibility database
  • Definition of the main access problems
  • Development of a strategy to address access problems
  • Prioritization of locations of specific interventions
  • Consolidation of prioritized interventions to produce action plans
From Rural Transport Training Materials. SSATP Website

Increasing Community Participation Rural Transport Infrastructure Projects

Key Steps:
  • Screening
  • Assessment of capacity
  • Organization forming and linking
  • Planning and design
  • Implementation
  • Monitoring and Evaluation
  • Sustainability
From Rural Transport Training Materials. SSATP Website

Peru Rural Roads Project Optimizes Effectiveness and Sustainability Through Participation of Community Members

In the planning stages of the joint World Bank Inter-American Development Bank Peru Rural Roads Project, community consultation workshops were organized in all affected villages with separate sessions for women to ensure that they could freely express their needs.

A local NGO facilitated the appointment of villages as members of Roads Committees to undertake and contract out maintenance in the local areas. The committees included representatives of traditional community groups including women's groups, to ensure that all community members' needs were met. Women were appointed to leading roles in many committees and formed the majority of members in some communities.

In direct response to needs expressed by women, the project supported improvement of 3000 km. of non-motorized tracks used by women and commonly ignored in upgrading programs.

Project evaluations suggest that, as a result of women's as well as men's involvement in project design and implementation, the project has helped to reduce travel times of both women and men by up to one half, decreased transport costs for both passengers and freight and increased the availability and quality of transport services. This in turn increased access to health services, improved the quality of education, and enabled easier access to markets.
Adapted from "Making Rural Roads Work for Women and Men: An Example of Peru's Rural Roads Program". World Bank Gender and Transport Website.

Participatory Techniques Resources

See Module 6 for a complete listing of gender and transport resources organized by type of resource and issues. The list below includes resources on topics presented in this section of Module 5.

 
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