Woreda Integrated Development Study

The Ethiopian Rural Travel and Transport Program (ERTTP) intended to address deficiencies in rural infrastructure and transport services, and to reduce hindrances they impose on rural development. ERTTP included instruments for enhancing development and foster improvement of (i) rural road and transport services, (ii) social and domestic facilities and (iii) income generating opportunities help reduce rural transport burden and poverty. ERTTP approached rural transport issues not only through conventional approaches to rural transport emphasising motorized transport means and roads infrastructure, but by addressing transport demand of rural households through other interventions. These included: facilitating and participating in the development activities that improve the proximity and ability of people to access their basic domestic needs, social services (education, water, health, energy) and economic facilities (markets, small-scale industries); as well as increasing capabilities of rural communities to contribute to provision of these services and to make use of them by creating employment and income generation through rural financing and improved agricultural production (agricultural extension), in addition to their regular farming activities.

RTTS identified the lack of a multi-sectoral need based plans at the local level as a major constraint. Therefore the ERTTP proposed to develop Integrated Woreda Development Plans (WIDPs) that included both transport (Woreda Travel and Transport Plan – WTTPs ) and non-transport interventions to ensure they were coordinated and harmonized to meet the Woreda’s development goals. The plans were developed, using participatory approaches, was then implemented by transport and other sectoral organizations, Communities, NGOs, etc. An important principle of the ERTTP, in the process of identifying and prioritizing the interventions, was the provision of innovative ways and means in which sustainability of investments can be improved at the local level.

The objectives of the assignment were:

1. to formulate Integrated Woreda Development Plans (WIDPs) that include Woreda Travel and Transport Plans (WTTPs); and
2. assist in developing the capacity of the Woredas and communities to plan and implement their development projects.

The WIDP and WTTP were the first such plans for the Woredas. They allowed Woreda authorities, in partnership with the communities and other stakeholders to (i) develop a vision for their development; (ii) identify immediate priority actions to initiate the realization of the vision; (iii) establish a process for reasoned review of their progress and thus to establish new priorities; and (iv) establish a rational basis for seeking resources for carrying out their development projects. In the framework towards decentralized planning and block grant allocation of fiscal resources, the WIDP assisted Woredas to optimize the use of their allocations and make a case for additional requests.