The aim of this study is to review the approaches to evaluation of social impacts of road development and usage. The study focused on approaches at project level, rather than at network level. Further, the study was not limited to ex ante methods (project appraisal) but considered ex post practices too. The distinction of which impacts should be considered as “social impacts” has not been evident. Technical Committee A.3 decided to widen the scope of its review and look at any impact on, or perceived by, non-road users. To accomplish its objective, the Committee decided to first collect information on systematic approaches used in ex ante evaluation by the countries represented in the Committee. At this stage, two different situations emerged: on one hand, there exist some developed countries where innovative methods are being developed and implemented; on the other hand, the appraisal of social impacts in developing countries is basically done following the requirements and practices promoted by international financial institutions (IFIs). This is the reason why the results from said review have been summarised separately. Together with said review of existing systematic approaches to appraisal, the Committee followed a similar process to identify and describe ex post evaluation practices amongst the Committee members’ countries. It is worth noting that the review did not mainly address the outcome of social impact assessments but rather the methodology of the evaluation. (Author/publisher)
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