Poverty is most severe in rural hills of Nepal which could be attributed to the lack of physical access. With an aim to reduce rural poverty, Government of Nepal decided to construct a road using labour-based approach. Rural accessibility planning was used for route selection and justified economically. Community contracting system involving Road Building Groups fromthe immediate zone of influence is used for the road construction. Group members are selected from poorest and socially excluded people with at least thirty percent women members in support of the women empowerment. Engineering consultancy is employed to supervise construction work whereas local NGOs are responsible for socio-economic development activities. Various trainings are given to the members to enhance their livelihoods. Members are saving at least ten percent of their wages for income generation and enterprises development activities which are proved to be effective tools for poverty reduction. The ownership feeling towards road is increasing which will help for future maintenance and sustainability of the road. Slow progress in construction is the main constraint of the project. Department of Roads is now in a process to develop a labour-based, community contracting guideline to enhance the poverty reduction impacts from rural road construction. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract