Long-run Socio-Economic Impact Study of Rural Roads and Markets Improvement & Maintenance Project - II (RRMIMP-II)

1. Study Objective

This study attempts to assess the long-term socio-economic impact of rural transport and trade infrastructure development carried out by the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) during 1997-2002 under the project titled Rural Roads and Markets Improvements & Maintenance Project-II (RRMIMP-II).

2. Data Source & Methodology

A quasi-experimental design involving “before-after” and “with-without” analysis was applied in the study. Using a set of criteria, 10 Feeder Roads Type-B (FRB), which were enlisted for development under RRMIMP-II were selected as project roads for the impact study. In addition, 4 control roads, which were not enlisted for development, were selected from areas that were similar to the areas around the selected project roads. During the course of the study, 2 of the 4 control roads got developed under separate projects. For each study road, a roadside village and a remote village were selected giving a total of 28 study villages. The remote villages provided the second level of control for the impact study and were required to be at least 2 km away from any paved road. During the course of the study the character of some of the remote villages also changed as roads within 2 km of these villages got paved. Ultimately, there were 18 project villages which were within 2 km of paved roads and 10 control villages which were without any paved road within a distance of 2 km from the villages. From each study village, a sample of 50 households was selected following stratified random sampling procedure. Three sets of field surveys were carried out before and after road and market development, which included (a) household survey, (b) transport survey, and (c) community survey. Benchmark survey (1997) was carried out before road development. This was followed by two consecutive rounds of surveys, two years (2000) and six years (2005) after road development to capture short and long term impact of road development. Seven study roads got developed prior to the second round of survey in 2000-2001 and have been labeled as Project-1 roads in this report, while five other roads got developed after 2000-2001 and have been labeled as Propject-2 roads. The report attempts to assess how road and market development triggered changes in various production sectors of the village economy covering transport, trade, service, agriculture and rural manufacturing and also examines changes at the household level with respect to household’s assets holding. The exogenous changes in the village economy and the endogenous changes in the household’s assets holding are likely to have favorable impact on the livelihood pattern in the household ultimately impacting on both income and human poverty situation.