territories (as per FUNAI,<sup>9</sup> IBGE 2010), and (b) about 7,500 residents of quilombos,<sup>10</sup> grouped in 15 dispersed rural communities.

Long-term development strategies aimed at promoting sustainable development and quality of life for citizens, under a state modernization approach, have been prioritized consistently under successive four-year, multi-annual plans ( _Planos Plurianuais,_ PPAs) adopted by different government administrations over the last 20 years. During the early stages of the state’s development, this translated into a strong focus on building core infrastructure, due to the state’s relative remoteness. While continuing to work on major infrastructure, in the early 2000s policy makers then focused on increasing accessibility to services, jobs and markets for the state’s remote poor populations.

In this context, the World Bank’s Board approved the Tocantins Sustainable Regional Development Project in December 2003. The project aimed to foster the improved effectiveness of road transport and the enhanced efficiency of selected public services. It included three components: (i) Participatory planning and management of regional and municipal development (US$6.5 million); (ii) Environmental management (US$10.2 million); and (iii) Rural road improvements (US$42.7 million). An impact evaluation was designed as a means to assess the impact of rural road improvements aimed at providing all-season accessibility to selected rural populations of the State of Tocantins.

The rural road improvement component targeted 67 municipalities within the four poorest regions in the eastern part of Tocantins: Northeast, Bico do Papagaio, Southeast and Jalapão (see Figure 1). Road improvements mostly comprised the construction of concrete bridges and culverts crossing rivers and streams, to allow year-round passage especially in rainy seasons. A participatory process, through forums open to the population of each municipality, was used to prioritize road interventions. Typically, 3 to 10 rural road sections were upgraded in each municipality, each representing 3 to 15 km of road length. At the outset, 63,000 rural dwellers<sup>11</sup> were expected to benefit from the road improvements. After having identified the roads, engineers identified the type of intervention needed at each location.

The civil works were implemented between 2006 and 2011. The timing of project implementation varied from one region to the next: most of the works were completed in the first region (Southeast) by 2010, and in the second region (Bico do Papagaio) by early 2011; works in the Northeast and Jalapão regions were completed, for the most part, only in late 2011. In total, close to 700 bridges and 2,100 culverts were built on about 4,400 km of unpaved municipal roads between 2006 and for all but six municipalities.<sup>12</sup>

# **Figure 1: Project regions in Tocantins, Brazil**

> 9 FUNAI: Brazil’s National Indian Foundation ( _Fundação Nacional do Índio)._

> 10 _Quilombolas_ are Afro-descendent groups whose ancestors fled slavery in remote regions. Of a total estimate of 3,000 _quilombola_ communities in Brazil, 171 have been officially recognized.

> 11 The total rural population in the project’s 67 municipalities is 162,000 (source: IBGE 2010). The project’s area of influence area has been 39% of the area of these 67 target municipalities (source: Implementation Completion Report, Tocantins Sustainable Regional Development Project, World Bank, 2012).

> 12 The works have been postponed in 6 municipalities: 3 in Bico do Papagaio, 1 in Northeast, and 2 in Jalapão.

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