The purpose of this indicator is to discern the proportion of the rural population who are near an all-season road.

The indicator measures the share of a country’s rural population that lives within 2 km of an all-season road. Among other factors, transport connectivity is an essential part of the enabling environment for inclusive and sustained growth. In developing countries, particularly in Africa, the vast majority of agricultural production remains smallholder farming with limited access to local, regional, or global markets. Isolated manufacturing and other local businesses (except for those related to mining) often lag behind in the global market. Limited transport connectivity is also a critical constraint to accessing social and administrative services, especially in rural areas where the majority of the poor live. Rural access is key to unleashing untapped economic potential and eradicating poverty in many developing countries. In the short term, transport costs and travel time can be reduced by improved road conditions. Over the longer term, agricultural productivity will be increased, and firms will become more profitable with the creation of more jobs, eventually helping to alleviate poverty.

Ministry of Works

Ministry of Works

Annual

Percentage (%)

The indicator is measured by combining three sets of geospatial data: where people live, the spatial distribution of the road network, and road quality. The use of spatial data has various advantages. It can help ensure consistency across countries. The level of spatial resolution is broadly the same regardless of the size of the country or subnational boundaries. Any given norm of connectivity is uniquely and unambiguously applied for all countries. The Rural Access Index (RAI), originally developed by the World Bank in 2006, is among the most important global development indicators in the transport sector, providing a strong, clearly understandable and conceptually consistent indicator across countries. It measures the proportion of people living in rural areas who have access to an all-season road within a walking distance of approximately 2 kilometres (km). Although the underlying methodology has been updated to leverage additional sources of data, the RAI remains the most widely accepted metric for tracking access to transport in rural areas.

Population Distribution - Quality population distribution data are essential for correct measurement of rural access. In some countries, census data is available in a geospatially detailed, reliable format. For other countries, population distribution data sets have been developed by the international research community, interpreting subnational census data through various modelling techniques. For the RAI, the WorldPop has been found to provide the best estimate.

Rural-Urban – Related to population distribution data, an important challenge facing the index is the need for a consistent and reliable urban and rural definition to exclude urban areas from the calculation. The inclusion of urban areas would create a substantial upward bias in the RAI, because most urban residents have “access to roads,” no matter how it is defined. Ideally, spatial data determining urban-rural boundaries are needed at a similar level of resolution as the population. As such data may rely on different definitions in different countries, globally produced urban extents may be used, such as the Global Urban Rural Mapping Project.

Road Network Data – Data on road locations may come from a number of sources. Ideally government data are used, as they are consistent with the road network for which road agencies are responsible and are relatively easily merged with other operational databases. In countries where the road location data may not be detailed enough or entirely missing, alternative data sources may be available, such as the open source Open Street Map.

Road Condition Data – The principle of the “all-season” road network remains central to the original concept of measuring the RAI.  An “all-season road” is defined as a road that is motorable all year round by the prevailing means of rural transport (often a pick-up or a truck which does not have four-wheel-drive). Predictable interruptions of short duration during inclement weather (e.g. heavy rainfall) are accepted, particularly on low volume roads. It is important to determine whether access to facilities and services is available all year round, and hence the possibility of the road throughout the year is an essential factor in this aspect of contributing to poverty reduction.

Due to its nature as a geospatially derived indicator, the RAI can be calculated at subnational levels down to the level of granularity of the underlying datasets. While the World Bank will only report country level results for SDG monitoring, subnational results are available for country use.

The indicator is calculated by overlying three basic geospatial datasets: population distribution, road location, and road condition. The RAI is calculated as the rural population within a 2 km buffer of a good road divided by the total rural population of the country.

This indicator can be used to measure the proportion of people living in rural areas who have access to an all-season road within a walking distance of approximately 2 kilometres (km).

The Indicator relies substantially on data collected by road agencies and national statistics offices for their operational work. As such, its update is dependent on the frequency of update of the road condition surveys and national census.

To make good investments, quality data are required. Since resources are limited, it is essential to understand where the most critical unmet needs exist, and monitor efforts made over time. In the transport sector, there are few global indicators. The quality of roads is often unknown and a matter of concern in developing countries.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.