Developing a Rural Access Index for the North West Province of South Africa

The South African government has made the development of rural roads a primary policy focus. Approximately 74% of all the roads in the North West province are unpaved, which underlines the problem of poor rural road investment practices. The Rural Access Index (RAI) has been widely adopted as a global development indicator for transport accessibility. The RAI is defined by the proportion of the rural population who live within 2 km of the nearest road in good condition. This paper aimed to develop a methodological framework for quantifying the North West province‘s RAI, including the district and local municipalities. The urban/rural divide is also manifested in the RAI scores of the NW Province. The RAI of the province was estimated at 43.433%, meaning less than 50% of the province's population is located within 2 km of a good-condition road. The RAI scores of urban areas vary between 46% and 76%. Thus, the findings confirmed that accessibility is significantly better for the urban population than the province's rural population. Regarding the district municipalities, the Ngaka Modiri Molema DM and Ruth Segomotsi Mompati DM had RAIs of 27.2% and 31.57% respectively. Policymakers need to reprioritise rural road investment practices based on RAI results to improve the accessibility of rural communities and to improve the urban-rural divide.