State of Knowledge Final Report on Age, Disability and High Volume Transport in Developing Countries

The Department for International Development (DFID), the United Kingdom’s international aid agency, had begun a five-year research programme on high volume transport (HVT). The first phase of that programme has been to assess the existing state of knowledge of HVT, which will inform a second phase of research in the programme. This final report details the work conducted so far on the Gender, Inclusion and Vulnerable Groups theme of the HVT programme. The main objective of this research theme is to understand how high volume road and rail transport situations in urban areas and along long distance transport corridors can negatively affect or exclude women, girls and other vulnerable groups.

In order to develop an understanding of the knowledge in this widely defined area, a series of contractors have delivered a series of focused pieces of work related to specific areas and gaps in knowledge in the area of inclusion and transport. The work described in this final report covers five specific areas of work:
– Disability and Transport
– Older People and Transport
– Young People and Transport

All five studies have found some common themes. All studies have found very limited levels of specific research addressing the issues concerned on developing countries. They have as a result drawn parallels from the much greater amount of literature related to the context of the Global North and drawn parallels, where appropriate, for global phenomena or patterns.
All three studies have highlighted the need to understand any particular issue of inclusion in a holistic and inter-sectoral manner. They highlight the difficulty of just focusing on ageing without an understanding of the impact that gender plays on the experience of growing older in developing contexts, for example. As a result, they make the case for research in these areas to be undertaken in an integrated manner in order to understand and incorporate these cross-sectional concerns.
All studies also highlight the need to improve methodological approaches to measuring degrees of inclusion and equity. Furthermore, there is an overall agreement across the studies on the need for more in-depth detailed social and behavioural science research on needs and patterns of different vulnerable groups that features methods that include such vulnerable groups in the development of the research understanding.
The initial draft recommendations from the State of Knowledge reviews in this theme highlight four main themes:
– Data issues
– Technology
– Inclusive HVT Planning
– Intersectionality