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January 1, 2008
Around the world, in much of development work, transport is the ultimate enabler. By serving other sectors of a nation’s economy, it puts development goals within reach. We know, for instance, that an estimated 75 percent of maternal deaths could be prevented through timely access to childbirth-related care, facilitated by transport. We know that girls’ enrollment in education can more than triple after completion of a rural road. And, we know that lowering transport costs along a modernized international corridor can unlock growth potential, create jobs, and bring wealth to local communities.
Mobility—the ability to access health care, education, jobs, and markets—may be something that citizens of developed countries take for granted. Yet for the 1 billion poor people in developing countries today who lack access to basic all-weather roads, for the 40-60 percent of people in developing countries who live more than 8 kilometers from a health care facility, or for poor urban dwellers who must spend up to five hours daily commuting in order to make a living, safe, clean, and affordable transport is a necessity.
In Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President, experts from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution propose a new, nonpartisan Middle East strategy drawing on the lessons of past failures to address both the short-term and long-term challenges to U.S. interests.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
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