Week 3: Women as a form of transport, headloading in Africa: organising transport through new information communication technologies
Within Africa women carry more goods on their heads than motorised vehicles carry loads. This seminar explores the ways in which information communication technology aligned with better organised transport provision can alleviate this situation.
The key readings are:
http://www.transport-links.org/transport_links/filearea/publications/1_789_pa3835.pdf
http://www.uneca.org/eca_programmes/acgd/Publications/en_caf_theme3.htm
The first reading documents the gender transport burden of women in Africa and provides information on women's transport disadvantage in other developing countries.
The second reading provides an understanding of the transport infrastructure planning process and indicates how gender planning concerns are now present in this field.
The third reading demonstrates Africa's own concern with ICTs as a mechanism for improving the lot of Africa's women.
Taking this set of readings together we can see that there is good reason to apply modern transport logistics to Africa's gendered transport problems. For example, the use of the mobile phone can be harnesed to gain information which could previously only be gained by travelling. Similarly, the mobile phone can be used to better coordinate and organise the transportation of produce from "remote" communities to markets.
Organising the sharing of scarce transport resources through low cost mobile technologies can be used to provide alternatives to current injurious head loading practices. Community transport solutions, aligned with information communication technology, clearly have a role to play.
Suggested further reading:
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