Policy Brief Issue 8 | March 2020

Gender-Specific Impacts of Road Improvement: What Can Be Done to Ensure That Better Roads Expand Economic Opportunities for All?

KEY FINDINGS

• Roadimprovementsareassociatedwithincreasedagriculturaltradeinbothmale-andfemale-headedhouseholds.However,anincreaseinagriculturalproductionisonlyobservedinmale-headedhouseholds.

• Female-headedhouseholdsmaynotbeabletofullybenefitfromimprovedroadsbecausetheyhavelesshouseholdlaborandcapitalavailable.Thisisaresultofhavingonelessworkingageadult,andmakesitmoredifficultforthemtoincreaseagriculturalproduction.

• Coordinatingroadimprovementprogramswithcomplementaryinterventions,suchasaccesstocreditprograms,mayhelpvulnerablehouseholdsovercomeconstraintstomakingproductivechanges.

BACKGROUND

Thereisevidencethatbettertransportinfrastructurecanachievemultipledevelopmentoutcomes,fromimprovingemploymentopportunitiestoreducingpoverty.1However,analysisofgenderdifferencesintheseimpactshasreceivedlessattention.Westilldon’tfullyunderstandwhethermenandwomenbenefitequallyfromimprovementstotransportinfrastructure,andwhatbarriers,ifany,preventeithergenderfromreapingbenefitsonparwiththeother.WithglobalspendingonthisparticulardevelopmentinterventionestimatedatUS$1trillionannually,2itisimperativetomakesurethatbothgendersfullybenefit.

EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC GENDER INNOVATION LAB

EAPGIL carries out

impact evaluations

and inferential

research to generate

evidence on what

works in closing

gender gaps in

assets, economic

opportunities, and

agency, and how

closing these gaps

can help achieve

other development

outcomes. Ultimately,

EAPGIL seeks to

increase the welfare

of women and men

in East Asia and the

Pacific by promoting

the uptake of

effective policies and

programs identified

based on evidence.

1 Forarecentreview,see:Asher,Sam,andPaulNovosad.2016.“Marketaccessandstructuraltransformation:EvidencefromruralroadsinIndia.”Manuscript:DepartmentofEconomics,UniversityofOxford.

2 TheestimatesrangefromUS$900billioninstudiesbytheInstituteforTransportationandDevelopmentPolicy(ITDP)andEMBARQ(Sakamotoetal.2010;Mahendraetal.2013),betweenUS$1.4andUS$2.1trillioninaWorldResourcesInstitute(WRI)study(Lefevreetal.2014),andUS$2.6trillioninastudybytheInternationalEnergyAgency(IEA)(Dulac2013).

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WHAT DID WE DO?

WeanalyzedtheimpactsofalargeWorldBankGroup-supportedroadimprovementprogram,theThirdRuralTransportProjectinVietnam(RTP3).ThedevelopmentobjectiveofRTP3wastoimproveyear-roundaccesstomarkets,economicopportunities,andsocialservicesforruralpopulations.Undertheproject,rehabilitationactivitieswerecarriedoutonapproximately3,100kmofruralroadsandmaintenanceonover19,000kmofruralroadsspreadacross33provincesinNorthernandCentralVietnambetween2008and2015.

Ouranalysisusedamixedmethodsapproach.First,wecarriedoutarigorousexpostimpactevaluationofRTP3combiningtheVietnamAccesstoResourcesHouseholdSurvey(VARHS)withadministrativedataontherolloutoftheproject.Then,wecarriedoutinterviewsandfocusgroupdiscussionswithbeneficiariesinasubsetofprojectsites3inordertobetterunderstandthemechanismsbehindtheobservedimpactsintheexpostimpactevaluation.

WHAT DID WE FIND?

Crop trade increases in all households, but production only increases in male-headed households

TheresultsoftheimpactevaluationsuggestthatRTP3roadimprovementstriggeredanincreaseincroptradeinallthehouseholdsinourstudysample(Figure1).Interviewswithprojectbeneficiariessuggestedthatthiswasdrivenbythe“access”channel:roadimprovementsfacilitatedaccesstofields,transportofcropstomarkets,andaccesstoandfortraders.Forexample,onerespondentsaid:

“When the road had not yet been upgraded, I drove a bike to carry 20 kg rice to a market. I couldn’t carry much more. It took 20 minutes… It might take a half of day to sell… Now I phone customers to come to buy rice. I don’t need to carry the product to the market.”

—Woman,NghệAnProvince

Figure1highlightstwomoreimportantfactsaboutthenatureofthischange,however.First,thoughcroptradeincreasedacrossthestudysample,themagnitudeoftheincreasewassubstantiallyhigheramongmale-headedhouseholds.Andsecond,theproductionofcropsincreasedonlyamongmale-headedhouseholds.

Why do impacts differ for male- and female- headed households?

Wefoundtwoexplanationsforthedifferencebetweenmale-andfemale-headedhouseholds.First,ourdatashowthatfemale-headedhouseholdsarehouseholdsthatareconstrainedintermsofhouseholdlabor.Theyhaveonelessworkingageadultcomparedtomale-headedhouseholds(Figure2).Itappearsthatmenareconsideredtheheadofhouseholdbydefaultwhenbothspousesarepresent.Female-headedhouseholdsarehouseholdsheadedbywidowsorsinglewomen.Thisdeficitofaworkingageadultmakesitdifficulttoincreasecropproductiondirectlysincehouseholdlaborisakeyinputintoagriculturalproduction.

Second,ourqualitativeinterviewsrevealedthathouseholdsincreasedproductionintwoways:theyeitherincreasedtheiruseofmachineryasaninputorstartedcultivatingcropssuchasorangeoracaciathatbroughtgreaterrevenue.

3 Weusedadifference-in-differenceframeworkforthenon-experimentalimpactevaluation.Formoredetailsabouteconometricspecificationaswellasqualitativedatacollection,pleaserefertothefullpaper,availableatworldbank.org/eapgil.

Male headed households Female headed households

FIGURE 1: CHANGE IN CROP TRADE AND PRODUCTION, AS % OF

PRE-INTERVENTION AVERAGE

100%

80%

40%

0%

-20%

60%

20%

Crop OutputCrop Trade

Inthewordsoftherespondents:

“In the old days, we used buffaloes or oxen to plough. Getting up at 5 a.m., leading the buffaloes and ploughing tools to the rice fields, we would finish ploughing 1 sáo4 at 8 a.m. Nowadays [with machines], 3 sáos takes 1.5 hours.”

—Woman,PhucThanh,NghệAnProvince

“I started planting acacia in 2012. First, I planted on 2 ha, and planted rubber on the remaining 1 ha. In 2016, I planted acacia on all 3 ha since rubber was not profitable.”

—Man,AnBac,QuảngNamProvince

Bothtypesofchangeshavefinancialimplications.Hiringmachineryrequiresadditionalpaymentsinthepre-harvestperiod.Cultivatingcropssuchasorangeandacaciarequiresliquidityoveralongerperiodsincetheharvestcyclesofthesetreesaremuchlongerthantheharvestcyclesforcropslikericeandmaize.Poorhouseholdsandhouseholdsmissingincomefroma

householdmember,suchasfemale-headedhouseholds,arelessabletomaketheseinvestments.

“Rich people have capital, so they can wait. We [are a household with] an average living standard… We cannot make long-term and large-scale investments like the rich.”

—Woman,LuongSon,LàoCaiProvince

Wefindsuggestiveevidencethatfemale-headedhouseholdsmaybesellingassetssuchaslandasawayoffinancingproductiveinvestments.OurquantitativedatashowthatinthesehouseholdsRTP3improvementsareassociatedwithanincreaseinincomefromsellingassetsandadecreaseinincomefromagriculture(Figure3).Thedecreaseinagriculturalincomemaybeduetoatransitiontomoreprofitablecropswithlongergrowthcycles.Notably,formale-headedhouseholdsweobservetheoppositetrend.RTP3roadimprovementsareassociatedwithanincreaseinincomefromagriculturalactivitiesinmale-headedhouseholdsanddecreaseinincomefromthesaleofassets.

4 Onesaoisabout500sqm.

Male headed households Female headed households

Male headed households Female headed households

FIGURE 2: NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS IN MALE- AND FEMALE-

HEADED HOUSEHOLDS

FIGURE 3: CHANGE IN INCOME FROM AGRICULTURE AND SALES OF ASSETS, AS % OF

PRE-INTERVENTION AVERAGE TOTAL INCOME

6 8.0%

53.0%

3

-2.0%

1

0 -12.0%

4

2

-7.0%

Working Age Adults Income from Sales of Assets

All Household Members Income from Agriculture

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WegratefullyacknowledgefundingfromtheUmbrellaFacilityforGenderEquality(UFGE)tocarryoutthiswork.WethankourcollaboratorsontheprojectfromtheWorldBank’sprojecttaskteam—NghiQuyNguyen,MaryClark,andKienNguyen.HoangLinhVuprovidedimportantsupportwiththedata.Theinsightsfromqualitativeworkcomefromworkdonebyateamofqualitativeresearchers—NguyenCongThao,NguyenThiMinhPhuong,KienNguyen,BuiThiHuongTram,BuiThiPhuong,andNgoVanDuong.Wearethankfultothem.WealsobenefitedfromexcellentcommentsfromKeikoInoue,AliceDuhaut,JulieBabinard,HardwickTchale,EliWeiss,JasperCook,ImogeneJensen,AndrewMason,AlmudWeitz,AadityaMattoo,andcolleaguesfromtheVietnamCountryOfficeLeadershipteam.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Elizaveta Perova, EAP GIL eperova@worldbank.org

Phuong Thi Minh Tran, EAP Transport ptran1@worldbank.org

www.worldbank.org/eapgil

WHAT ARE THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS?

TheresultsindicatethatalthoughroadimprovementsunderRTP3createeconomicopportunitiesinagriculture,female-headedhouseholdsfacedifficultiesintakingadvantageoftheseopportunitiesbecauseoflowaccesstohouseholdlaborandcapital.

Thissuggeststheneedforadditionalinterventionstoallowfemale-headedhouseholdsandothervulnerablehouseholdsfacingsimilarcreditorhouseholdlaborconstraintstofullyreapthepotentialbenefitsofbetterroads.Programsfacilitatingaccesstocreditorimprovingfinancialliteracywouldbeexamplesofsuchinterventions.Evenifsuchprogramsarenotexplicitlytargetedatfemale-headedorothervulnerablehouseholds,weexpecttheirimpactstobegreaterforthesehouseholdsprovidedthattheprogramsareaccessibletothem.

Ourresultsalsopointtothevalueofcomplementarityingovernmentinvestments.Forexample,coordinatingtheimplementationofaruralroadsprogramwithanagriculturalcreditprogramcouldleadtogreaterimpactsthanthesumoftheimpactsofeithertheroadimprovementonitsownorthecreditprogramonitsown,atleastformorevulnerablehouseholds.

TheEastAsiaandPacificGenderInnovationLab(EAPGIL)issupportedbyUFGEinpartnershipwiththeAustralianDepartmentofForeignAffairsandTrade.UFGEhasreceivedgenerouscontributionsfromAustralia,Canada,Denmark,Finland,Germany,Iceland,theNetherlands,Norway,Spain,Sweden,Switzerland,theUnitedKingdom,andtheUnitedStates.