Basic Access for Sustained Rural Development.

The significance of the rural sector in the African context as far as economic development is concerned cannot be over emphasized. In Tanzania, the argument is supported by the fact that 80 percent of the country's population live in rural areas and are engaged in subsistence agricultural production. While agriculture remains the back borne of economic development, rural roads development and effective transport system are essential facilitators for this important process. Thus, Tanzania has increased its focus on road sector development. Resources allocated to the road sector have relatively increased. However, the resources have been primarily directed towards the national road network, other classified roads and some of the essential feeder roads. The poor state of access roads, which link villages to district centres, is a major obstacle to farmers. The main connections between agriculture producers in the rural areas, consumers in sub- urban areas and marketing centres, and the majority of villages are not yet reached and accessible. The biggest number of small connections on community roads, tracks, footpaths and minor roads between the farm, villages, between villages and the main roads are not well connected. Thus, public sector services in rural areas remain inaccessible. Such services include health centres, schools, agricultural extension centres and the like. A lot of time and effort is thus lost in accessing such services; and unfortunately this burden follows over women who carry up to 85% of rural transport burden; in most cases such activities are carried on head and walking up to 5 km. Poor access and isolation need to be analysed as a development problem in economic as well as social parameters. In addressing rural transport issues a holistic approach is needed. The physical design of transport infrastructure need to consider appropriate means of transport and types of transport services those rural communities need and can afford. The use of Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) has proved to be very useful in rural areas. The participation of local communities from planning to implementation level as well as sustained resource mobilization system is essential for basic access and eventually rural development. This paper is an attempt to provide an analysis of poor basic access in rural Tanzania and some practical solutions to improve the situation. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.