Rural Access Programme (RAP), Nepal wins Award

01 February 2010

A DFID-funded project building roads and boosting female employment in Nepal has won a major award.

The Rural Access Programme (RAP), Nepal was awarded the 2009 Global Roads Achievement Award for Advocacy. 

Shyam Prasad Mainali, secretary for the ministry of local development, collected the award in Washington last month.

RAP – funded by DFID since its design phase in 2000 – has already completed the construction of 607 km of roads in Nepal, connecting three district headquarters, and is currently building a further 365 km.  It has employed more than 47,000 people - more than 40% of them women - and has helped to reduce the prices of basic commodities along the road corridors by more than 50%.

The programme was recognised by the International Roads Federation (IRF) for its significant contribution to a better understanding of the role of roads in economic development, the promotion of road transport infrastructure, and the development of road construction.

The Head of DFID Nepal, Sarah Sanyahumbi said:  “RAP is designed to improve the lives of the poorest, and it is achieving this goal. Also by employing more than 40% women in the workforce, and with wages equal to those of the men, it helps achieve gender equality in Nepal.”

By the end of the programme (now scheduled for 2012), DFID will have given a total of NRs 7 billion as grant aid.  So far, RAP has:

• Connected over 1 million people in remote districts to the national road network.
• Allowed 58% of members (more than 10,000 households in total) to clear their debts, escaping the clutches of moneylenders.
• Helped poor people access health facilities (child vaccinations up from 59% to 93% in RAP areas, since 2001) and helped increase access to education (up from 75% to 92%).
• Provided work for the socially excluded Janajati and Dalit castes.

Read the full press release