Lack of access is one of the principal reasons for high incidence of rural poverty in Nepal. There is a strong correlation between poverty and access to economic and social services. An estimated 30,000 kms of rural roads (over 50,000 Kms exist, of which more than 55 % are non-operable) are needed to provide the connectivity required. About 22% of the population still has to walk more than 4 hours in the hills and 2 hours in the plains to reach a strategic road network. Two district headquarters are yet to be connected by road. Therefore, a considerable gap exists in the provision of reliable access to services/opportunities for people in Nepal.

The main goal of the “Local Roads Improvement Project” is to contribute to improved livelihoods of the people and to local economic development in the four programme districts of Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Okhaldhunga and Khotang.

The target groups include disadvantaged groups living along the zone of influence of the roads, who benefit directly from cash incomes/injections through contribution of their labour in the road maintenance, rehabilitauon, upgrading and construction works. Similarly, all the communities whose access to roads will be reduced by 4 hours in the hills and 2 hours in the terai will also be another target group. Others include District Development Committees (DDCs) and local road user’s committees.

1. People use the improved roads for their economic and social benefits.
2. National and local institutions adopt a planned maintenance system/approach for the local roads.

Results from previous phases:  

This is the first phase of the programme. However, this is built on the successes of 14 years of the District Roads Support Programme (DRSP). Key results and insights of DRSP are:

• People have benefited from motorable access to resources and opportunities, and institutional structures and capacities at all levels have ensured good governance and acceptable levels of worker welfare.
• People living within 30 minutes of an all-weather road have doubled from 100,000 to 200,000 in programme districts, contributing to achieving the national policy goal of bringing motorable access to within 4 hours of walking distance in the hills of the project districts.
• More than 2 vehicles are operating every day in all the opened roads, which has helped increase the frequency of trips made by local people to local market centres by a factor of between 2 and 5 times.
• There has been a positive overall impact on the local economy through cash injection from road construction. A total of 2.2 million person days of employment were generated, out of which, 38 % of workforce was constituted by women and 70 % of employment days were received by Disadvantaged Groups (DAGs).
• There has been a three-fold increase in household income over the last 12 years in the corridors of the roads that DRSP built.
• Overall, the rate of food sufficiency in the areas served by the project roads was estimated to have doubled.

Phase 2 16.07.2016 - 31.12.2021   (Completed)