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IDENTIFY AND SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF ACCESS TO BASICSERVICES IN RURAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH THE INTEGRATEDRURAL ACCESS PLANNING SYSTEMJOSE-ALFONSO BALBUENA-CRUZ & CARLOS-DANIEL MARTNER-PEYRELONGUE
Integrated Transportation and Logistics Coordination, Mexican Institute of Transportation,
Mexicobalbuena@imt.mx
martner@imt.mx
ABSTRACTThe inhabitants of low-income rural communities need basic services to maintain or improvetheir standard of living, such as health, education, rural roads, employment, transportation
services, drinking water, socio-administrative services, and where many of these services
are located in municipal capitals or communities of regional importance. Therefore, the lackof access to these services is considered one of the main factors of poverty in rural areas.
Given this dilemma, the objective of this paper is to develop a computer platform, entitled
Integrated Rural Access Planning System (IRAP System), to support a development projectof the International Labor Organization (ILO), called Integrated Rural Access Planning,
through a tool that facilitates the capture of field information on the access problems of lowincome rural communities to the points of supply of basic goods and services, andsimultaneously generates immediate results on which basic services group the greatest
access problems and which need to be solved. In this way, the IRAP System, proposed inthis paper, seeks to support local and national decision-makers in their planning processes,
to quickly assess what needs to be done and where, and to identify appropriate solutions toimprove access to priority basic services.
This System consists of two modules: data entry and generation of results. The data capture
module allows entering into the system the information on the main access problems bybasic service described by the inhabitants of low-income rural communities and thus
generating the database, which is the input for the results generation module. In the results
generation module, the hierarchy of basic services to be addressed is obtained, and thethree main access problems for each basic service are grouped together. In fact, 80% of themain access problems are concentrated in a few basic services. It is important to note that,at the moment of capturing the information, the results are generated simultaneously for acommunity, micro-region or municipality. Another aspect of the IRAP System is that it isavailable in three languages: Spanish, English and French, so that the system can be usedby rural development planners in developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,
Africa and Asia. Finally, the PIAR system was applied in 10 low-income rural communities
in Mexico and a course on the system was given to authorities in Sudan.
1. INTRODUCTION
The IRAP is a local participatory planning methodology that was developed by theInternational Labor Organization more than ten years ago, based on the concept of ruralaccess, which is considered as the level of ease or difficulty for rural people to use, reachor obtain basic goods and services [1]. Access is an important factor in rural development,
therefore, it is perceived as one of the main factors of poverty, particularly in rural areas ofdeveloping countries. People need access to water, energy, land for crops, health services,[1]
XXVIIº World Road Congresseducation, transport services and markets. The absence or deficiency in this factor limits theopportunity people have to improve and maintain their social and economic well-being.
Improved access and poverty reduction are correlated.
Given the above, IRAP simultaneously seeks to improve the rural transport system and the
distribution of basic infrastructure and services. The objective of the methodology is to costeffectively improve access to goods and services in rural areas, particularly in poor anddisadvantaged communities. IRAP as a participatory planning methodology is based on theaccess needs of the rural population and seeks to maximize the use of resources (human,material and financial) of local and federal governments. Its main characteristics are its
simplicity, user-friendliness, low-cost application and immediate results. The IRAP supports
local and federal decision-makers in their planning processes, to define priorities in different
sectors and communities, to quickly assess what should be done and where, and to identify
priority investments in services and/or rural infrastructure. Thus, the IRAP was applied infour low-income rural micro-regions located in the municipality of Amealco in the south of
the state of Querétaro, Mexico [2, 3, 4 and 5], and based on this experience, the Mexican
Institute of Transportation developed a computer system (software) that facilitates thecapture of information from the IRAP questionnaire applied in the field and at the same time
generates immediate results to support decision-makers in identifying the most pressing
access problems and thus design feasible solution proposals.
Based on the above, the IRAP methodology was again applied together with the IRAP
System developed in 10 low-income rural communities located in the Mexican states ofNayarit, Guerrero, Tlaxcala and Estado de México, with the objective of defining andprioritizing the problems and needs of access of rural inhabitants to the supply points ofavailable basic goods and services, and thus identifying and proposing solutions to improve
such rural access [6].
Finally, with the support of the International Labor Organization, a course was given to
Sudanese authorities on the methodology and system of Integrated Rural Access Planning,which was 100 percent practical and included field work in a low-income rural region locatedsouth of the capital of the African country [7].
2. INTEGRATED RURAL ACCESS PLANNING
As mentioned above, IRAP is a participatory planning methodology comprising ten steps [8],which can be grouped in three phases:
Phase 1. Data collection.
Phase 2. Data analysis.
Phase 3. Identification of interventions or proposed solutions (see Figure 1).

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XXVIIº World Road CongressSource: International Labor Organization
Figure 1. Phases and steps of Integrated Rural Access Planning

2.1

Phase 1. Data collection

The methodology begins with the application of the IRAP questionnaire (composed of 11
sections) to groups of key informants (maximum 10 people) in community meetings held in
the low-income rural communities under study. Through this questionnaire (see Figure 2),
men and women provide consensual answers on the following topics:a) General information. - Date of the meeting and place where it is held; names of key
informants and their position in the community; distance and direction from the municipal
capital; type of land where the community is located; population and number of families.
b) Location of the basic services and facilities in the community.
c) Existing problems of access and mobility of villagers to: health facilities, schools (primarylevel), drinking water, post-harvest facilities, markets, administrative services andemployment.
d) Existence of transportation services and infrastructure and the trafficability of the routes.
e) And, the community's three main access problems with three possible solutions.
Once the access information is obtained through the application of the IRAP questionnaire,
this information is entered into the IRAP system to generate the corresponding digital fileand, subsequently, a review of the information in the digital file is carried out to correct any
errors in the entry.

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XXVIIº World Road CongressHealth Facilities
Community:

Survey number:
Health facility 2

Health facility 1
Name:
Location:
Tiype
Hospital
ClinicHealth house
Other:
Distance on Km

Health facility 3

Name:
Location:
CheckManagement
Government sector
Private sector

Check

:

Access to facility
Easy access all weather
Difficult access on rain weather
Difficult access all year
There are not access
Main problems
To far
Water crossing
Difficult terrain
There are not transportation
Bad roads/trails
Lack of medicines
Lack of medical doctors
Lack of beds/rooms
Other
Main means of transport used
Walking
Donkey/horse/muleCart
BicycleMotorcycle
Vehicle/pickup truck
Van/Collective/bus
Truck
Canoe (without engine)
Boat/panga (with engine)
Other
Average travel time
Dry season
Rain season
Frequency of visits
Times per year

Tiype
Hospital
ClinicHealth house
Other:
Distance on Km

Check

Name:
Location:
CheckManagement
Government sector
Private sector

Check

:

Access to facility
Easy access all weather
Difficult access on rain weather
Difficult access all year
There are not access
Check Main problems
To far
Water crossing
Difficult terrain
There are not transportation
Bad roads/trails
Lack of medicines
Lack of medical doctors
Lack of beds/rooms
Other
Check Main means of transport used
Walking
Donkey/horse/muleCart
BicycleMotorcycle
Vehicle/pickup truck
Van/Collective/bus
Truck
Canoe (without engine)
Boat/panga (with engine)
Other
TT (min) Average travel time
Dry season
Rain season
Num.
Frequency of visits
Times per year

Tiype
Hospital
ClinicHealth house
Other:
Distance on Km

Check

Management
Government sector
Private sector

Check

:

Check

Access to facility
Easy access all weather
Difficult access on rain weather
Difficult access all year
There are not access
Check Main problems
To far
Water crossing
Difficult terrain
There are not transportation
Bad roads/trails
Lack of medicines
Lack of medical doctors
Lack of beds/rooms
Other
Check Main means of transport used
Walking
Donkey/horse/muleCart
BicycleMotorcycle
Vehicle/pickup truck
Van/Collective/bus
Truck
Canoe (without engine)
Boat/panga (with engine)
Other
TT (min) Average travel time
Dry season
Rain season
Num.
Frequency of visits
Times per year

Check

Check

Check

TT (min)Num.

Source: International Labor Organization
Figure 2. Example of a section of the IRAP questionnaire

2.2

Phase 2. Data analysis

With the use of the IRAP system, data analysis is performed as follows:
1. The system automatically calculates the Access Indicator for all services and for all ruralstudy communities. The Access Indicator (AI) shows the difficulty that rural households havein making use of a service, i.e., it shows the cumulative average travel time of rural
households when making use of a given service. In this way, it is observed whether theservice is easily accessible or not by comparing the AI values between communities for aparticular service. The way to calculate the AI is through the following equation [8]:AI = TT x NF
where:
NF = Number of families permanently residing in the community, town, village, hamlet
or other given area under consideration.
TT = Travel time or average travel time a family spends to get to a facility.
AI = Access indicator: the multiplication of the average travel time and the number offamilies. This quantifies the level of difficulty with which families have access to agiven need or service; in "family-minutes".
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XXVIIº World Road CongressThis indicator effectively shows the communities where families "consume" too much timeto access a service. With this, we have a clear idea of which communities should be given
priority in solving their access problems, once the sector or service to be addressed has
been defined.
2. Hierarchization of priority problems. - This second point makes it possible to obtain the
ranking of the sectors or services to be addressed, and where the three main accessproblems for each service mentioned by the key informants are added together. For
example, for the health service, the access problems with priority 1 were added, plus theaccess problems with priority 2 and, finally, the access problems with priority 3. This
procedure was repeated for the other sectors mentioned by the key informants:
transportation, education, drinking water, administrative services, handicraft sales, markets,roads and drainage.
The hierarchization of priority problems makes it possible to focus on one sector at a time
and thus generate feasible solutions to solve these problems, making the best use ofavailable and often limited resources.
2.3

Phase 3. Identification of interventions or proposed solutions

In order to develop feasible and low-cost solution proposals, it is necessary to develop
access profiles.
An access profile is the description of the data analysis supported by graphs and accessmaps, where the priority sectors or communities to be served are clearly identified. Thisvisualization of access problems allows local planners to generate various solution
proposals that are agreed upon with the local population and decision-makers in community
meetings or validation workshops.
3. THE INTEGRATED RURAL ACCESS PLANNING SYSTEM
As will have been observed, the Integrated Rural Access Planning System, proposed in thispaper, was developed to strengthen phases 2 and 3 of the IRAP methodology. Indeed, thissystem accelerates the capture and processing of field information and, simultaneously,
generates immediate results that show the basic services with the greatest access problemsby micro-region and community.
In the development of the IRAP System it was decided to use some elements of the following
technology: Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which use the latest technology in browsers to
behave almost like a native desktop or mobile application without depending on theoperating system on the desktop or laptop computer. Thus, the IRAP system wasprogrammed under web development standards such as JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5.
Therefore, this system has the following characteristics:
1. It is functional for every user, as long as the default browser is Google Chrome,
Microsoft Edge or Opera regardless of the operating system installed on the computerequipment.
2. It can operate without Internet connection or with poor connectivity.
3. It is multiplatform, adapting to any screen, be it a desktop or laptop computer..

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XXVIIº World Road Congress

The system is integrated by two modules: "Data capture" and "Results generation", see
Figure 3.

Source: IRAP System
Figure 3. IRAP system main screen
In the "Data Capture" module, the field information recorded in the IRAP questionnaire
applied in the rural communities is entered to obtain digital files that together make up the
database for the generation of results.
The "Generation of results" module calculates the access indicator that shows the difficultyor ease with which rural families have to use a basic service. In addition to obtaining thehierarchy of sectors or basic services to be addressed, and where the three main problemsof access to each service mentioned by the key informants are grouped together.
3.1

Data capture module

The data capture module has the same format as the IRAP questionnaire, i.e., it is thequestionnaire in its electronic format. This facilitates the capture of field information obtained
from the meetings with key informants in the rural communities under study. Thus, thismodule has eleven sections for capturing information (see Figure 4):a. General informationb. Health facilities
c. Primary educationd. Drinking watere. Post-harvest facilities[6]

XXVIIº World Road Congressf. Markets
g. Socio-administrative services
h. Employment
i. Transportation and road infrastructure
j. Access problemsk. Community projects

Source: IRAP System
Figure 4. Data capture module
3.1.1 General information section
In this section the following data are entered: survey data; the name of the key informants
and their position in the community; community data; type of land where the community is
located; and population information (number of men, women, children and families).
3.1.2 Sections on health, education, water, post-harvest, markets, socio-administrative
services and employment
The structure of the IRAP System for capturing data on health, education, water, postharvest, markets, socio-administrative services and employment services is similar, andtherefore these sections are described together below:
a. Health service. This section collects data related to the health facilities that rural
residents use to treat their illnesses: type of facility, management and distance;
access to the facility; main access problems; main means of transportation used;average travel time and frequency of visits.
b. Education service. This section collects information related to children's school
attendance at the primary level, such as: maximum degree of studies and type ofmanagement; number of students and distance traveled; access to the facility(school); main problems of access; main means of transportation used and average
travel time..
c. Drinking water. This section captures data related to rural households' access todrinking water: type of facility (water source), use, number and distance; access to[7]

XXVIIº World Road Congressthe facility; main access problems; main means of transportation used; average travel
time and frequency of visits.
d. Post-harvest. This section contains information related to the storage of crops
belonging to the families of the rural community visited: type of facility (storage), typeof energy used and distance; access to the facility; main access problems; mainmeans of transport used; average travel time and frequency of visits; and the numberof visits to the facility.
e. Markets. This section captures data related to the places where basic products andothers that are necessary for the daily activities of rural families are obtained: locationof the market, products sold, coverage and distance; access to the facility (market);main access problems; main means of transportation used; average travel time andfrequency of visits.
f. Socio-administrative services. This section contains information related togovernmental or private procedures to be carried out by rural inhabitants: location of
the socio-administrative services, type of services offered and frequency of visits;
access to the place to carry out the procedure; main access problems; main meansof transportation used and average travel time.
g. Employment. In this section, data related to those people who have non-agriculturaljobs in the visited community are captured. Thus, the data that need to be captured
are: Main source of household income both inside and outside the community;
important workplaces outside the community; type of employment and location;access to the workplace; main access problems; main means of transportation used
and average travel time.
3.1.3 Transport section
This section contains information related to the means and services of transportation
available in the community visited, as well as the transportation infrastructure: Means oftransportation available in the community; transportation services available in thecommunity; characteristics of the transportation infrastructure and trafficability of the routes(see Figure 5).
3.1.4 Section on the main access problems
This section captures data related to the three main access problems faced by rural families,
as well as the three proposed solutions by the same key informants. Thus, the data captured
are: With which services each of the main access problems is related and what are theproposed solutions; classify the three priority problems and classify the three proposedsolutions (see Figure 6).

[8]

XXVIIº World Road CongressSource: IRAP System
Figure 5. Transportation section

Source: IRAP System
Figure 6. Section on main access problems
3.1.5 Section on Community Projects
This section contains information related to how the community's inhabitants organize
themselves to carry out projects and in decision making: Name of the project andcharacteristics; main obstacles that affect the implementation of projects and participationof the community's population in decision making.
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XXVIIº World Road Congress

3.2

Results generation moduleThis module calculates the access indicator and obtains the three main access problems foreach service mentioned by the key informants. These two elements help the decision-maker
to direct the necessary actions to solve the access problems of rural families and in which
community, in order to optimize the available resources.
In fact, the IRAP system processes the digital questionnaires obtained in the data capture
module to first generate the graph "Priority services/sectors to be addressed", where thedecision maker clearly identifies the priority sectors whose main access problems need tobe solved. In this case, the priority sectors with the highest percentages should be chosen
and when added together they should be around 80%, that is, few priority services
accumulate the greatest number of access problems to be addressed (see Figure 7).

Source: IRAP System
Figure 7. Graph of priority services/sectors to be solved
Secondly, the system generates the "Access Indicator Table", which facilitates the decisionmaker in which rural communities to direct the necessary actions to solve the main accessproblems and which services should be prioritized (see Figure 8).

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XXVIIº World Road CongressSource: IRAP System
Figure 8. Access indicator table
4. RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE IRAP SYSTEM
Based on the above, the IRAP methodology was applied together with the system in 10 lowincome rural communities located in the Mexican states of Nayarit, Guerrero, Tlaxcala andEstado de México, in order to define and prioritize the problems and access needs of rural
inhabitants to the supply points of available basic goods and services, and thus identify andpropose solutions to improve rural access. The following are the results obtained: The ten
study communities have a total population of 3,114 inhabitants (2010), which are located in
mountainous terrain (80% of the localities) and undulating terrain (20% of the communities).
Of these communities, 80% have a high degree of marginalization, 10% have a very highdegree of marginalization and the remaining 10% have a medium degree of marginalization(see Figure 9).

Source: Own elaboration
Figure 9. Selected rural communities[11]

XXVIIº World Road Congress

The economic activities carried out in the communities were identified based on information
gathered in the field. Ninety percent of the communities studied carry out agricultural work
for self-consumption. Because this agricultural production does not provide adequate
sustenance for rural households, their members are forced to carry out the following
activities outside their communities: In five communities, an average of 6% of households
are employed in activities related to the area of construction, with the destinations being
state or municipal capitals. And in one rural community, an average of 5% of households
are employed in commerce.
Once the information has been analyzed, the following access profile is generated, which isthe description of the results obtained in this analysis. Based on the hierarchy of priority
problems, generated in the IRAP system, it was identified that the preferred services towhich access problems need to be solved in the study communities are: health,employment, education and rural roads (mentioned as bad rural roads), which together
account for 77% of the access problems (see Figure 10). Indeed, health services accountfor 33.3% of the total access problems mentioned by key informants, followed by
employment (20.2%), education (13.1%) and rural roads (10.1%). The remaining accessproblems are distributed among services related to markets, post-harvest and drinking
water.

Source: IRAP System
Figure 10. Hierarchization of priority problems by sector or service.
As can be seen in Figure 11, market services, post-harvest and rural roads (bad roads) havethe same percentage 10.1%, for the selection of the most urgent service the criterion of thehighest number of priority mentions was used, in this way rural roads were selected as the[12]

XXVIIº World Road Congressmost urgent sector, since as can be seen in Figure 11 rural roads or roads in bad conditions
have a mention in priority 1, while markets and post-harvest have no mention (zero).

Source: IRAP System
Figure 11. Selection of the most pressing service based on priority number 1
In order to improve the problems of access to priority services, which account for 77% of
these problems, the following solutions have been proposed (see Figure 12):
1. Health sector. - It is suggested to build or improve the infrastructure of the healthfacilities where people go for medical attention. And to improve the quality of service.
2. Employment. - It is proposed to have more job offers (quality and infrastructure).
3. 3.
Education. - It is recommended that the infrastructure of schools be built or
improved, and that the quality of service be improved.
4. Rural Roads (bad roads). - It is proposed to improve the road surface and thetechnical characteristics of the roads.

Source: IRAP System
Figure 12. Proposed solutions for improving rural access by type of service
To identify which rural communities should be served based on the above results, the accessindicator tables are used to achieve this objective. In this way, the following is obtained:[13]

XXVIIº World Road Congressa. Health sector: As shown in Figure 13, the three communities with the highest AccessIndicator related to health access are Santa María de Picachos, El Hermitaño andTepozal. Indeed, these communities are the ones that should be attended to first in orderto solve their problems of access to hospitals and clinics.
Community
Service FN/SN Name/Type
Place
Access Indicator (AI)Priority
SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS Health
112 ROSAMORADA HOSPITALROSAMORADA
21840
1
SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS Health
112 SSASANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS
7840
1
EL HERMITAÑO
Health86 BIENESTAR CLINICSAN LEONEL
6020
1TEPOZAL
Health70 SSASAN ANTONIO
3500
1
EL HERMITAÑO
Health86 HOSPITALSAN CAYETANO
3440
1
El Capulin
Health162 SESSATERRENATE
2835
1
EL CALVARIO
Health32 MEDICAL OFFICECHILPANCINGO
2320
1
EL CALVARIO
Health32 HEALTH CENTER
PETAQUILLAS
1680
1EL MALINAL
Health156 IMSS CLINIC
EL MALINAL
1560
1,2
EL POTRERO DE IXTAPAN
Health20 HEALTH CENTER
POTRERO DE IXTAPAN
1500
1
Mesa Redonda
Health58 CESSA ALTZAYANCA
ALTZAYANCA
1015
1
CHACOTLA
Health35 HEALTH CENTER
MAZATLAN
962.5
1
Mesa Redonda
Health58 CESSA FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO ALTZAYANCA
406
1
EL CALVARIO
Health32 HEALTH HOUSEEL CALVARIO
320
1

Source: Own elaboration
Figure 13. Access indicator table for health services
b. Employment: The communities that need to be addressed in this area are Santa Maríade Picachos, Tepozal and El Capulín (see Figure 14). This means that there is a needfor more jobs in their municipalities.
Community
Service
FN/SN Name/Type
Place
Access Indicator (AI)Priority
SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS Employment
112 SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS
7840
3SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS Employment
112 SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS
7840
3TEPOZAL
Employment
70 TEPOZALTEPOZAL
7350
3
El Capulin
Employment
162 MUNICIPALITIESMUNICIPALITIES
2025
3
CHACOTLA
Employment
35 MAZATLAN
MAZATLAN
962.5
3
Mesa Redonda
Employment
58 MUNICIPALITIESMUNICIPALITIES
725
3
EL POTRERO DE IXTAPAN
Employment
20 COMMUNITYCOMMUNITY
150
3

Source: Own elaboration
Figure 14. Access indicator table for employmentc. Education: As shown in Figure 15, the communities of Santa Maria de Picachos, Mesa
Redonda and El Hermitaño have the highest Access Indicator (AI) value for three schools
located in the same communities. Therefore, these low-income rural communities should
be addressed immediately to solve the problem of student access to primary education.
Community
Service
FN/SN Name/Type
Place
Access Indicator (AI)Priority
SANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS Education
70 BENITO JUAREZSANTA MARIA DE PICACHOS
4900
2
Mesa Redonda
Education
52 IGNACIO ZARAGOZA MESA REDONDA
390
2
EL HERMITAÑO
Education
30 JOSE MARIA MORELOS EL HERMITAÑO
375
2

Source: Own elaboration
Figure 15. Access indicator table for education service
d. Rural roads: Finally, in terms of rural road infrastructure, it is the community of
Estutempan where efforts should be focused on improving the road surface and technicalcharacteristics of rural roads, as well as the mobility of rural residents, as shown in Figure
16 below.
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XXVIIº World Road Congress

Community Service
FN/SN Name/Type
ESTUTEMPAN BAD RURAL ROADS
175 Distance
ESTUTEMPAN BAD RURAL ROADS
175 Transport facilities
ESTUTEMPAN BAD RURAL ROADS
175 Mobility (Means of transport)

Place
Access Indicator (AI)ESTUTEMPAN NA
ESTUTEMPAN NA
ESTUTEMPAN NA

Priority123

Source: Own elaboration
Figure 16. Communities to be served in relation to rural roads
Finally, and with the interest and support of the International Labor Organization, from May
29 to June 2, 2022, a training course on the Integrated Rural Access Planning (IRAP)
methodology was presented to officials of the Ministry of Labor and representatives of theState of Kasala in Sudan, with a total of 26 participants. The course was held at the Petronascomplex, headquarters of the offices of the International Labor Organization in Sudan.
This training course consisted of the following topics and activities:
1. Presentation of the IRAP methodology and exercise with the IRAP questionnaire.
2. Presentation of the IRAP system and exercise
3. Presentation of the validation workshop and exercise
4. Presentation of digital mapping and exercise
5. Presentations of the elaboration of interventions and how to implement the proposedsolutions.
This course was designed to be 100% practical and was based on Mexico's experience inthe use of the IRAP, thus, the course is part of the South-South Cooperation.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Access is an important factor in rural development; therefore, the lack of access to basic
goods and services is perceived as one of the main factors of poverty, particularly in rural
areas of developing countries.
Therefore, the methodology and development of the IRAP System allows those interested
in rural development (national and local authorities, non-governmental organizations,researchers and the rural inhabitants themselves) to obtain empirical information for the
analysis of the multisectoral problem of the access needs of men, women and children to
the points of supply of basic goods and services available in rural micro-regions.
As previously explained, the main contribution of the IRAP System proposed in this paper
is to strengthen phases 2 and 3 of the ILO IRAP methodology. Indeed, this systemsignificantly accelerates the capture and processing of field information and simultaneously
generates immediate results that show the basic services with the greatest access problemsby micro-region and community.
In fact, in the case study presented in this article, it was possible to clearly identify the sectorsthat ten rural communities consider to be priorities and in which 77% of the access problems
are concentrated (few services concentrate the greatest access problems: Pareto's law). In
addition, the access problems were prioritized towards the supply points of basic goods andservices, and several low-cost and feasible solutions were proposed.

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XXVIIº World Road CongressOn the other hand, by knowing the priority sectors in combination with the access indicator(AI) and with the support of maps, local resources (human, material and financial) can be
efficiently directed to reduce or eliminate accessibility problems in the most affected ruralcommunities. Indeed, the IRAP System generates the required results immediately and at
the community, micro-region or municipality level, supporting in an agile way the activities
and decision making of rural development planners.

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San Ildefonso Tultepec, Amealco, Querétaro. Informe de investigación. Instituto Mexicano del Transporte.
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Bustos Rosales. (2018) Planificación Integral del Acceso Rural. Zona poniente del municipio de Amealco.
Informe de investigación. Instituto Mexicano del Transporte. San Fandila, Querétaro, México.
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XXVIIº World Road Congress