MAKING RURAL ROADS WORK FOR LIVELIHOOD DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

摘要

Fifty years into the life of Sri Lankan’s after independents, poverty reduction has becomean on-going agenda and remains unrealized for around 80% of the rural population. Thisstudy attempts to demonstrate robust benefit evaluation of a rural village developmentprogramme on household livelihoods and social wellbeing. The evaluation methodology isbased on standard “before and after” technique on 100 rural villages survey undertaken13 districts in Sri Lanka. The results clearly demonstrate that the rural village road networkis an integral part of its economy that works as a transmission mechanism stimulating andsustaining the poor people’s livelihoods. Analysis showed that internal mobility andoutward connectivity improved the villager’s income/consumption levels making their lifestyle easy and convenient. Amongst all, poor households are the real beneficiaries thanthe rich. Road infrastructure has generated many other complementary opportunities andincome sources including the transport services. Improved rural road network keeps thevillage open and resilient for enhanced livelihoodsFindings of this study provide inputs for policy makers in designing and implementingpolicies for rural poverty reduction in developing countries like Sri Lanka. If comprehensiveeconometric procedure is adopted, it is likely to find more empirical support than it hasheretofore.