Can structured planning frameworks fulfill the needs of Cambodia’s rural poor?

Walking several kilometers every day to fetch clean drinking water is not a common experience to most policymakers. For many Cambodian women, however, this is a daily reality. This time-consuming activity places a high extra burden on these women's already heavy workload and often hampers their development as well as that of their families. The Cambodian government, supported by national and international organizations, has made efforts to alleviate the workload of these women by developing more water wells and creating a better maintenance of the existing ones. Cambodian government officials are usually not familiar with the situations in Cambodia's rural areas; therefore the decisions they make do not always meet the real needs of the Cambodian poor (Ramaekers, 2004). Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP) is a participatory planning tool for rural development of which the main objective is to help draft plans that will improve access to Basic Minimum Needs (BMN) such as clean drinking water for the rural poor. The IRAP process endeavors to address three priority-setting questions related to rural accessibility, transport, and infrastructure: What should be done? Where should it be done? How should it be done? The planning procedure not only involves water supply as a sector. Roads, education, health centers, and markets are four other sectors included in the tool. The approach to the planning of infrastructure works can be considered as demand-driven,