Distances are vast. Delivering services, such as agricultural extension, adult literacy courses and rural health care, is a problem. In urban area a large percentage of the people live below the poverty level but they still must get to employment, education, medical services, markets, etc. Strategies and tools are needed to move underdeveloped, largely impoverished Africa into a healthier, more productive, more prosperous and sustainable society. The bicycle is consistent with these goals and constraints.
Transportation is a link to opportunity.
It links workers to places of employment, producers to users of goods and services, students to schools, patients to health care, and everyone to family and friends. In the Third World in general and Africa in particular, transportation alternatives are not as specialized or differentiated, hence efficient, as their counterparts in more industrialized countries. As a consequence, efforts to improve economic and social conditions, which have a transportation component, as most do, are less efficient and the breadth of opportunities is more restricted. Limited access to transportation, whether it is physical or financial, restricts access to the best possible life. Conversely, improved access to transportation, especially for the poor, can improve employment prospects, reduce the money and time spent getting to jobs and schools or hauling fuel and water, reduce the costs of inputs for small-scale enterprise activities and increase access to markets for products.