Unloading the transport burden of women in the rural areas through intermediate means of transport: a case study of Yilo Krobo District

In Africa transport needs claim a significant part of the daily life of the rural population especially women of all ages. Women, who are the principal producers of food, managers of household resources and the custodians of family welfare, are usually faced with a variety of social and economic constraints. One of the major constraints faced by the Ghanaian rural woman in undertaking her household responsibilities or in providing the basic needs for the family is inadequate access to transport services. This often results in women travelling and transporting water, firewood and heavy bags of foodstuff from the farm and to the markets a foot. A World Bank funded village transport survey in the Ashanti, Volta and Northern regions of Ghana revealed that, at the household level women carry out most transport activities. The average adult female devotes almost three times as much of the working day to transport as the average male. In the light of this, the study aimed at investigating the rural transport situation in Yilo Krobo District. Thus a five days field survey was organized to focus on investigating the following: • The structure of the transport network and the road conditions; • The gender mobility needs of the population; • The shortfalls of the existing transport system in terms of ownership, user cost, reliability, and frequency; and • The extent to which the introduction or improvement of intermediate means of transport services can meet the mobility needs of women in the district. An assessment of the gender mobility needs revealed that an average rural man spends 2160 hours per year on clearing, cultivating, weeding and harvesting whereas the average rural woman spends 1344 hours on the same activities. However in terms of load carriage, a rural woman carries an average annual load of 72.3 tonnes and the rural man carries 6.4 tonnes per year. Transportation takes place mainly on the footpaths. The respondents complained that the passenger services and freight services available are unreliable; fares are high and their coverage area limited to the lower parts (southern) of the district. From the analysis it was revealed that people who live outside the areas visited owned all the passenger services. Also only 17 per cent owned intermediate means of transport; particularly bicycle. The ownership of intermediate means of transport (IMTs) such as the single - axle tractor and trailer, tractor and trailer, bicycle and trailer, small farm vehicle and the hand truck can reduce the load burden significantly. Unfortunately, majority of the respondents cannot afford these means of transport owing to limited funds. However, it is hoped that if NGOs come in to assist women’s groups to acquire IMTs such as the single axle tractor and trailer, Unit Committees participate in the planning and implementation of rural transport services, community members contribute to acquire intermediate means of transport and the government puts in favourable policies to encourage the assembling and manufacturing of IMTs, would to a large extent help unload the transport burden on the rural population; especially women.

Source: KNUST