• There is virtually no literature specifically about the demand for information on transport issues in rural areas in developing countries, although there is much tacit knowledge (Colombia Case Study).
• There is a substantial volume of knowledge about transport needs and much detailed case-study information is available in the literature or on web sites (The World Bank, Transport Links), but there is little information incorporating analysis or synthesis at regional, national or international levels. The World Bank, and other sites also provide much useful information on how to assess transport needs (Lebo and Schelling, in progress).
• There is a general assumption about the demand for and value of information for policy makers and practitioners (DFID Transport Newsletter May 2001), and information is recognised as vital for learning about the impact of development interventions in general (Thin, Good & Hodgson 1997).
• The dissemination of information is one of the aims of many of the institutions working in this sector and the importance of knowledge sharing is emphasised in their institutional strategies (IFRTD, DFID). Some of these institutions have undertaken an analysis of the information needs of their target audiences to develop their information strategies (IFRTD, DFID). However, these are only described in internal documents and have not been made available to the public. Most of these strategies seem to be based on the outputs from transport research programmes, rather than an assessment of the information needs of potential users (TRL 2000). There are some new initiatives on information sharing in rural transport issues, which could contribute substantially to any future dissemination strategies (World Interchange Network, SUSTRAN, IFRTD).
• The literature and information that is available tends to focus on transport policy-planning processes to reduce poverty. There are many analyses of information constraints in the appraisal of rural transport projects, for example, the lack of adequate economic, social and political information to inform traditional cost-benefit evaluation of transport investments. This is used by some authors to justify the development of alternative models based on local information (Balla 2000, Van de Walle 2000, Lebo and Schelling 2001). There are also many methodologies, guides and articles describing the kind of information needed for transport planning, for example, sectoral approaches (EU 2002); participatory rural planning (ILO/SDC 1997); integrated rural accessibility planning (Dixon-Fyle 1998, Dingen 2000); and for environmental impact assessment of transport projects (UN 2001).
• Most authors agree that information needs are highly context specific, and an attempt to systematise knowledge about information needs (based on IFRDT’s Information Strategy) and provision (based on an internet search) failed to identify any general gaps and opportunities. However, there does seem to be more information about roads than other modes of transport, and more on transport technology than social and economic factors.

2. Information and knowledge in livelihoods in rural areas

• Information and communication are critical elements of livelihoods in rural areas. Poor people need information to make decisions on livelihood strategies, and the institutions with which they interact need information to inform the policies and processes that support (or undermine) those strategies.
• Rural communities, their institutions, government and other agencies all have well developed local communication and information networks, and many people still trust what they can hear and see first hand above other information. Television and radio can reach a wide audience in many developing countries and access to the internet is growing throughout the developing world. The current emphasis on extending internet access however, runs the risk of losing communities rich, vital and experiential knowledge, which has always circulated in local informal networks, and new hybrid communication systems are needed which can integrate existing information and networks, to inform and be informed by the internet.
• Improved communication and information alone however are not sufficient for improved livelihoods. Stakeholder participation in decision-making processes, and building multi-sectoral collaboration and partnerships between them are also crucially important. This wide range of stakeholders, from rural communities to international support agencies, all have their own specific information needs and delivery preferences. Sustainable development and the elimination of poverty also demand attention to national political economic and social processes, international relations and trade.
• A recent study of information needs to support rural livelihoods in developing countries identified the information needs of stakeholders at all levels:
• Rural poor households need information about the availability of inputs and services, market prices, and general information about the institutional and policy context.
• Producer organisations need information on opportunities and constraints in the rural sector.
• Local NGOs need information about existing livelihood opportunities and constraints.
• Local government needs information about the local status in all sectors, their own and other’s services, opportunities and poverty.
• Private sector organisations need information about markets, opportunities and local regulations.
• National NGOs need information about policies, institutions and decision-making processes.
• National government needs information to monitor public programmes and trends in production and poverty.
• International Donor agencies need national-level and international information on production, poverty and governance.
• The study identified seven key recommendations to improve information and communication in rural areas:
  1. Determine who should pay: Information for agricultural and rural development was until recently considered a global public good to be made freely available to all, but donors and governments are increasingly relying on the private sector. There are some examples where rural communities are prepared to pay for information, but poorer farmers often lose out because they can not afford to pay. More work is urgently needed to explore this issue, to develop a new consensus on who should pay for information for poorer farmers.
  2. Ensure equitable access: There is substantial evidence that if new information systems do not reach the poor, existing social, ethnic, gender, economic and political disparities may be exacerbated. Television and radio remain much more widely accessible than the internet, especially in Africa. There are good examples in Africa and Asia where new, internet-based information services have had positive livelihoods and governance outcomes for the poor. The challenge is to apply these pilot approaches more widely and to ensure information is also integrated into, accessible through, and compliments more traditional media.
  3. Promote local content: Rural communities trust endogenous and local information more than exogenous information, and are unlikely to adopt external solutions, without substantial discussion of locally specific examples. Improved access to locally-relevant information is essential for poverty reduction. Supporting communication between local institutions may be more important than providing new content from external sources.
  4. Build on existing systems: Many information systems are overly ambitious, overly complex, and over-designed. They tend to overlook the fundamental organisational processes and institutional incentives that encourage people to use them. Experience shows that the most effective systems are simple and modest, and build on existing databases and data collecting routines to provide specific information to specific users, to inform decisions for which they are accountable.
  5. Build capacity: There is a critical need to build capacity at all levels – international, national and local. It is particularly important to strengthen local capacity in information collection, storage and dissemination in order to bridge the gap between information providers and users.
  6. Use realistic technologies: Information and communication initiatives for development are expanding exponentially. Most promote the latest technology, leading to a perpetual race to keep up. It is essential to be more realistic. In developing countries the most sustainable approach is to use a combination of old and new technologies and to link them, though there are few good examples.
  7. Build knowledge partnerships: The new ‘network’ age makes it possible to build dynamic ‘knowledge partnerships’ between individuals and organisations at any level. Multidisciplinary knowledge partnerships that can develop mechanisms to deal with the problems of connectivity and information literacy at community level, and link with national and international systems, offer the potential for a dynamic two-way flow of information at every level.

3. Information and knowledge in policy processes

• Traditionally, policy-making has been viewed as a linear process, where policy makers identify a problem, then explore various possible solutions based on existing knowledge, or by commissioning research, decide on the best option, then establish the policy environment to implement it. The literature on policy processes is now shifting towards a more dynamic and complex view that emphasises a process shaped by multiple relations and reservoirs of knowledge, where the political context, the actors (networks, organisations and individuals), the message, and media all exert influence.
• According to political scientists, the policy process is essentially a political process, driven and constrained at least as much by political factors as by knowledge. The literature on anthropology describes how policy makers (and other people) are influenced by ‘discourses’ or ‘paradigms’, and tend to relate new ideas with them. Information or knowledge outside the current paradigm, or the dominant discourse, are unlikely to influence policy decisions, unless they contribute to an emerging discourse which is in the ascendant. It is interesting that the current paradigm of ‘the information age’ has politicised information itself. Information, and its generation and use, is no longer neutral. Information is often described in political terms as, for example, ‘strengthening the interests of developed countries’ or ‘contributing to the digital divide’, or (more positively) ‘empowering the poor’.
• Multiple actors participate in the policy process through a wide range of institutions and networks. Actors perceive, remember and use ideas in different ways, and various models have been developed to describe this. Economists developed the rational economistic or cost/benefit model, and behavioural psychologists the stimulus-response model. More recent attempts to explain why some ideas succeed and others fail have tended to emphasis ‘irrational’ factors such as culture and values (of both organisations and individuals), the part played by informal and ‘non-linear’ decision-making processes, and the role of emotional dynamics such as anxiety and memory (again, both in organisations and individuals). Studies in organisational management and social psychology have revealed that individuals and organisations are unlikely to easily adopt new ideas, which affect their identity and values, without a crisis or very strong pressure. They are likely to be much more receptive to ideas and information which only require changes in, for example, operational procedures, practices and resource distribution.
• The degree of attention paid to circulating ideas is also determined by the way those ideas are presented. There are many academic fields that provide interesting contributions in this regard, including the literature on interpersonal communication, advocacy and marketing communication, media communication and IT, and knowledge management and research relevance. These fields have gradually shifted away from various linear theories of communication (sender – message – channel – recipient) towards more interactive models. The focus on interaction implies that there is no longer a hierarchical and clearly defined relationship between the ‘sender’ and ‘recipient’, but rather that both parties in a communication process occupy sender and receiver roles at different stages. Moreover, both parties contribute to the content and meaning of the message. In other words, the message is not fixed, but changes as it circulates between the different parties, since different actors will understand and respond to the message in different ways.

Gaps in understanding of the demand for information on transport

• While there is much tacit knowledge, there is little explicit information available in the literature or on web sites describing the demand for information on transport issues from any of the key stakeholders. Most of the current information providers are donors, research institutions or networking organisations, who have themselves decided (more or less scientifically) what the information users need.
• Further work is necessary to identify transport information needs more clearly. This could be through capturing, codifying and publishing existing tacit information; through interviews with key players and/or analysis of case studies; and/or further research (as is planned within TRISP).