**1. Introduction**

In this chapter, we discuss one of the key measures for improving rural roads and extending socioeconomic benefits to rural communities in developing countries. The key challenge is the

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

improvement of rural roads under circumstances in which financial and technical constraints dominate.

Spot improvement was conceived as one of the solutions. This method involves a local resource‐based approach in which community initiatives are transformed into practical interventions. Specifically, Do‐nou technology [1], which is a Japanese term for a type of soil bag, became recognized as a means of building unpaved roads [2], retaining walls, and other road structures using the geotextiles available in developing countries. Only simple skills and labour are required, which fosters community initiatives for the improvement of rural roads. This approach has been introduced in both Asia and Africa.

**Figure 1** shows a schematic view of the road network in a developing country. Road classifi‐ cation schemes vary from one country to another, but in general, road networks consist of trunk/regional, rural, rural access and unclassified roads. The trunk/regional roads are grouped as major roads, while the remainders are classified as rural.

**Figure 1.** Schematic view of road network.

The road networks in developing countries have been developed through a combination of local government institutes efforts and assistance from donor agencies. Interventions have prioritized the major road networks, given their capacity to accelerate the growth of the market economy, the scale of their impact, and the efficiency of investment. Because the limited financial resources are mainly given to building, rehabilitating, and maintaining major roads, the rural roads in developing countries remain in poor condition.

While rural roads carry only low volumes of traffic, they are vital lifelines for people who live along them, offering access to markets, schools and hospitals. The inaccessibility of many rural roads isolates the local population from socioeconomic benefits (**Figure 2**). Thus, the poor state of rural roads can be identified as a significant cause of poverty in rural areas [3].

Spot Improvement of Rural Roads Using a Local Resource‐Based Approach: Case Studies from Asia and Africa http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/66109 91

**Figure 2.** Ambulance stuck on an unpaved road in Papua New Guinea.

improvement of rural roads under circumstances in which financial and technical constraints

Spot improvement was conceived as one of the solutions. This method involves a local resource‐based approach in which community initiatives are transformed into practical interventions. Specifically, Do‐nou technology [1], which is a Japanese term for a type of soil bag, became recognized as a means of building unpaved roads [2], retaining walls, and other road structures using the geotextiles available in developing countries. Only simple skills and labour are required, which fosters community initiatives for the improvement of rural roads.

**Figure 1** shows a schematic view of the road network in a developing country. Road classifi‐ cation schemes vary from one country to another, but in general, road networks consist of trunk/regional, rural, rural access and unclassified roads. The trunk/regional roads are

The road networks in developing countries have been developed through a combination of local government institutes efforts and assistance from donor agencies. Interventions have prioritized the major road networks, given their capacity to accelerate the growth of the market economy, the scale of their impact, and the efficiency of investment. Because the limited financial resources are mainly given to building, rehabilitating, and maintaining major roads,

While rural roads carry only low volumes of traffic, they are vital lifelines for people who live along them, offering access to markets, schools and hospitals. The inaccessibility of many rural roads isolates the local population from socioeconomic benefits (**Figure 2**). Thus, the poor state

of rural roads can be identified as a significant cause of poverty in rural areas [3].

This approach has been introduced in both Asia and Africa.

**Figure 1.** Schematic view of road network.

grouped as major roads, while the remainders are classified as rural.

the rural roads in developing countries remain in poor condition.

dominate.

90 International Development

On 25 September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development called Transforming our World was adopted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit [4]. The new targets that were set were referred as to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and had the aim of ensuring that no one would be left behind. The ninth goal was to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Research initiatives and case studies on ways of improving rural roads through the develop‐ ment of appropriate technologies and by equipping rural communities to use them are in line with this international development goal.

In this chapter, we present case studies of capacity building to enable rural communities to tackle the rural road problem through spot improvement using local resource‐based ap‐ proaches. We discuss the following issues:

