The Political Economy of Roads Dr Lyla Mehta Institute of Development Studies, UK,

1. The Political Economy of Roads Dr Lyla Mehta Institute of Development Studies, UK, Noragric, Norway

2. “Every road has a story to tell”: Demenge 2011 • Why are roads built? What do they say about our relationship with the environment, power relations and wider socio-political processes? • How are the environment and society transformed with roads? • Most concern with technical aspects, not political economy

3. Narratives around roads • Development and modernity / poverty alleviation • Several purposes served – e.g. strategic, military, control, geopolitical • Roads portrayed as technically and politically neutral • Increase mobility and enhance access to services/ markets • Modernization project

4. Nature of roads • Low levels of maintenance and poor quality can make them rivalrous - sometimes excludable (e.g. through tolls etc.) but in SSA difficult to implement • Natural monopoly and entail high sunk costs in terms of land, labour, materials • High demand for roads, low demand for maintenance (linked to political mileage and political priorities) • Cost and time overruns/ donor and external involvement

5. Benefits and transformation • Labour intensive and generate employment • Transport and construction industry support employment / also serve as a conduit for livelihood activities • Access to services, markets, state interventions • Mobility and movement • Increases in crop prices, improvement in health (e.g. material health) • Improved school attendance

6. Mixed experiences with roads • Access to some resources also lost (e.g. land, pastures, CPRs) • Water –related changes (loss, flooding, • Dramatic changes to livelihoods • Mobility and isolation are gendered • Increased political control • Hierarchy of benefits – rich benefit more than poor; • Men tend to control surpluses and travel more • Lack of consultation/ decision making

7. Road construction as a political process • Macro politics – states pursue specific goals – e.g. ‘territorializing regime’ - political control is exercised over land and allows sovereignty to be extended over the frontier • Making people and places ‘legible’ • Military and border politics • Taming ‘wild’ landscapes and people • Micro politics – battles for the road; different strategies exercised to gain access to resources and adapt to changes from road

8. Roads for water – sociopolitical research will focus on: • Changes to access to resources, services and CPRs before and after the road • Little known links between water and roads and patterns of adaptation • Knowledge/ perceptions of roads/ water related impacts • Changes to livelihoods and food and water security • Changes to social and gender relations • Links with wider drivers of changes • Ways to create sustainable and modified practices