Ensure availability and maintenance capacity
Rural people can have problems obtaining and maintaining local transport solutions. There are advantages in fabricating transport devices in small local workshops. Factory-made products need effective supply systems. They should be locally repairable and backed with good rural stocks of parts.
Photograph by Paul Starkey ©
Tyre repair service in Zimbabwe

Photograph by Paul Starkey ©

It is often difficult to buy intermediate means of transport in rural areas. Cart adoption is often limited by lack of wheels and axle assemblies. In some countries, if rural traders were assisted to maintain stocks of components and parts, the number and range of local transport solutions would increase.

Photo: Wheels and axles for carts on sale in Tanzania
Photograph by Paul Starkey ©
Small cart workshop in Burkina Faso		 Photograph by Paul Starkey ©
Artisanal cart workshops in Senegal

Local manufacture (or local assembly) by artisans in the small workshops of market towns may enhance rural supplies of intermediate means of transport. Local production generally assures good repair and maintenance services. Some technologies benefit from factory-scale manufacture or importation. Where this is the case, emphasis should be on development of effective supply systems, with good stocks of transport devices and parts in rural areas.