Mapping Rural Access to Roads (RAI) with Global Open Data

Description

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 aims to "build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation." Addressing inadequate access to roads, especially in rural areas, is critical to achieving SDG 9. Sustainable transportation helps to eliminate poverty, promote food security, improve access to key health services, increase trade competitiveness, and bolster human rights. As one measure of progress, the UN has established SDG indicator 9.1.1: "Proportion of the rural population who live within 2 km of an all-season road." This indicator is commonly known as the Rural Access Index (RAI).

This knowledge package includes resources related to the production of a data set presenting the RAI for 209 countries and 45,162 administrative level 2 subnational units, computed using global open data sources. Production of the data set was completed in support of the Population and Infrastructure on Our Human Planet project, part of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Human Planet Initiative (HPI).

The methodology employed was informed by the official UN SDG indicator metadata acquired from the SDG Indicators Metadata Repository.

• Indicator 9.1.1: Proportion of the rural population who live within 2 km of an all-season road (version updated 2020-09-01)

Elements of the Knowledge Package