Infrastructure projects, and morespecifically, roads construction, and maintenance are one ofthe core operations of the World Bank. However, despite theincrease of gender mainstreaming efforts in transportprojects little is known about the effects of theseinterventions on women’s agency defined as the ability tomake effective choices and transform these choices intodesired outcomes’. This study aims to bridge this knowledgegap. The study looks at the effects of women’s participationin roads construction and maintenance and rural economypromotion activities on women’s agency, which has recentlybecome a focus of study at the World Bank. Throughindividual interviews and focus groups the study assessesthe effects of women-targeted interventions in three ruraltransport projects in Argentina, Nicaragua, and Peru. Byfocusing on agency, the study sheds light on effects ofgender mainstreaming interventions that have more lastingeffects on gender equality given the catalytic value ofagency on other gender outcomes such as economicopportunities and endowments. The report is structured asfollows: section one gives introduction. Second sectiondescribes the gender dimensions and agency-enhancingapproaches in transport projects and the gender approachesin project implementation in the selected case studies. Thethird section provides a summary of the methodology of thestudy. The fourth section describes the key findings of thequalitative research. The fifth section presents the lessonslearned to inform future rural transport interventions. Thesixth section provides concluding remarks.
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