Gastvortrag/Guest Lecture: Maggi Leung: A wider road to inclusive development? Differentiated impacts of infrastructural upgrade in rural Ethiopia

A wider road to inclusive development? Differentiated impacts of infrastructural upgrade in rural Ethiopia

Maggi W.H. Leung (Utrecht)

Date: 16. May 2019
Venue: HS 383, Rudolfskai, University of Salzburg

The expansion of the rural road network in Africa is praised for reducing spatial isolation, lowering transport cost, increasing access to markets and bringing services closer to home. It seems that there can be no arguments against the implementation of such infrastructural projects as a way to inclusive development. However, different segments of society will benefit unevenly from the construction of a rural road. This difference may lead to dynamics that either exacerbate or reduce existing inequities. This lecture address this concern. It illustrates the differentiated impact of feeder road development on people’s livelihoods, mobility and work, drawing on a recent mixed-method, multi-stakeholder study in Tigray, Ethiopia. In particular, examples will be provided to illustrate the power of class, gender and place in shaping the geography of opportunities and risks. These real-life examples provide input in answering important questions such as: How inclusive are inclusive value chain development enabled by better connectivity the comes with a new road? How is the emergence of road-side business gendered? How do new road affect the accessibility of health services? The lecture ends with a discussion on the possible exclusive nature of inclusive development strategies.

Maggi Leung ist Associate Professor, International Development Studies Research Group, at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.​

This lecture is organized by the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research together with the Department for Sociology and the Working Group Social Geography.