The aim of this paper is to providefeedback on the question of socioeconomic benefits fromrural road development and the impact of transportinfrastructure on the poor, particularly the poorest and thebottom 40 percent of the population. This study relies onimpact evaluation methodologies, which are traditionallyused in social sectors but less so in the transport sector.These methodologies were launched in 2003 under theTocantins sustainable regional development project. Thispaper highlights the context that led to the project’sdesign, which included an impact evaluation of the worksenvisaged under the project. It also highlights some of themain challenges faced by this impact evaluation and howthese challenges were addressed for the present study. Itthen provides details about the data collected during thesurveys and the key relevant characteristics of thepopulation targeted by the surveys. It discusses thepossible estimation methods envisioned to undertake thestudy and provides the main results of the assessment basedon these methods. The analysis shows that improved ruralroads changed people’s transport modal choice. People cameto use more public buses and individual motorized vehiclesafter the rural road improvements. The paper also finds thatthe project increased school attendance, particularly forgirls. Although the evidence is relatively weak instatistical terms, it indicates that the project contributedto increasing agricultural jobs and household income incertain regions.
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