Rural household transport in Africa: reducing the burden on women?

Rural household travel patterns have been largely ignored in African transport studies. Over the past ten years, however, village-level surveys have been undertaken which reveal the preeminence of female porterage in rural transport activities. Donor agencies are now focussing efforts on "appropriate" transport technology interventions to directly enhance rural mobility and to indirectly improve agricultural productivity. Preliminary evidence, however, suggests that men rather than women are the main benficiaries of appropriate transport technology. This paper asks why and suggests a number of methodological refinements to future rural transport studies to generate the necessary information for devising programmes with a higher likelihood of effective assistance to rural women transporters. The paper reviews the findings on rural household transport demand emanating from surveys and literature reviews in East and West Africa

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