Comm: "In Earth Report's 'Water in Your Tank', we went on a journey to a future where cars will be powered by hydrogen.

"Continuing our coverage of transport, this week we will take what is - for most of our viewers - a journey back in time.

"Except that for at least 400 million Africans this is the present. In Africa south of the Sahara desert, there aren't any vehicles to get around in. If you want to get somewhere, you have to walk, and if you want a road or path to walk on, you have to build it yourself.

"Every day there is the struggle, the vastness of the countryside and invariably, the long walk.

"Africa south of the Sahara is home to the majority of the world's poorest countries and millions of Africans must live on less than a dollar a day.

"There are many reasons why the continent has not benefited from the growth in the global economy. One of the most telling - and most frequently overlooked - is transport."

Josephine Mwaukusye: "The development of the community starts with the road."

Sekou Bayo: "This road is our soul, it is our heart, it is our body, and food. Without a good road, one wouldn't really be free."

Josephine Mwaukusye: "...because you need a good road to get accessibility, but that is only the beginning..."

Comm: "Transport is only a worry to most of us when the roads are polluted and congested or the trains are not running on time. But for Africans who live in the countryside, time is something they are running out of.

"This is Guinea, West Africa. It's Tuesday in Kindia. Market day. Women and their families have come here for generations to sell their produce, buy provisions, and exchange gossip with friends and relatives.

"There are only three dirt roads that lead to the market from Guinea's rural interior. On market days, these Guineans will do whatever it takes to get from their own village to Kindia.

"Some come by bicycle or motorbike, if they have them.

"A ride in this pick up truck will cost around 50 cents - half the daily income for the poorest household. But worth it if you've got a family to feed.

"The most important thing is to get to market. And for most, this means walking.

"This is Aminata Kamara. Her village, Kebefriguia, is about 5 kilometres away on the top of a small mountain. Every Tuesday, with her baby girl on her back, she brings as much produce she can carry to sell at the market."

Aminata Kamara: "It's just the problem of getting a truck, everyone is getting on board the truck to come here and it's too crowded. When there is no truck you just have to walk the distance on foot.

"We need good roads and means of transportation, like vehicles and trucks. As for me, the doctors have advised me not to carry loads, but because of lack of transportation, I'm just obliged to do so. I carry more than 20, 30 Kilos, which I am not supposed to do."

Comm: "Aminata's brother, Mamduba also comes to the market on Tuesdays."

"Mamduba Kamara: "The farm work we do is not very productive. We come here with our vegetables, we sell them, we will get maybe 3000, 5000, 10,000. With that money we buy what we need to eat for the following day and we carry it home.

"We left our village at 7 in the morning; we reach here at 10 in the morning.

"We are here up until 5 in the evening and get home about 8 pm at night."

Comm: "Of course Mamduba gets home a lot earlier, as a man, he doesn't carry anything. In rural Africa, the carrying is always done by the woman. It's the way it's always been.

"Today was a good day. As the last of her avocados are sold off, Aminata can finally think about heading home, five kilometres, on foot, uphill.

"Rural Africa is a place where people walk. To fetch water in the morning and firewood in the evening. To the market. To the fields. To school. Trips of up to 20 kilometres that can take more than two days are common.

"For Aminata, it is nearly dark by the time she reaches home."

Aminata Kamara: "I started going to the weekly market before I was married, that was twenty years ago. My efforts alone cannot help me get better transportation, like a bicycle. Instead, I want to look for alternatives, if there is any help from any outside agencies. We are here, we have no health centre, no anything, and walk long distances to get to the market. Transport would make our lives easier."

Josephine Mwaukuseye: "Yeah, when we are talking about road and accessibility, it's not just that we want a good road, so that we can get vehicles passing, and maybe collecting people collecting goods. But it's more than that, it actually it touches a lot more sectors. Rural access means, getting access to education, school, getting access to the health sector, but also to the marketing, there's a lot a lot more issues to be taken care of."

Comm: "In colonial times and since independence, Africans living in the countryside have been poorly served by the decision-makers in town. Then, prestige projects that did little to improve their lot were in favour. But there are signs of change.

"Lately, there's been a move to start with the basics. And the most basic of all is actually to consult with the villagers themselves - and to make decisions respecting the traditional ways.

"If poverty in rural Africa is to be addressed, ready access is needed to services and markets. And it doesn't mean borrowing the vast sums that have loaded Africa with its huge debt burden. If vehicles are too expensive to be obtained, then simple things like footbridges or wheelbarrels could ease the burden.

"One solution was as simple as providing a donkey.

"The TanZam highway stretches from Tanzania all the way to Zambia. Just off the highway, near Morogoro, lies Kinyenze, a Masai village of about 130 people.

"Driven by the need to move their herds to new pastures, the Masai of East Africa lived a nomadic lifestyle, packing up their scanty possessions on the backs of donkeys.

"In the 1970s, however, the Tanzanian government adopted a policy of encouraging the Masai to settle down into village life. This meant getting rid of most of their livestock and all their donkeys. Kinyenze village was one of the first.

"But village life hasn't come naturally to the Masai, so thirty years on, the donkey is making a return.

"Meet Kimamile, the first man in Kinyenze to own a donkey since the Masai turned from herder to villager.

"Kimamile applied for development assistance in a pilot donkey programme. First he went for donkey training, and a couple of months later, he brought home two donkeys.

"The Donkey programme works in this way, 10% of the cost up front, the rest in installments.

"As soon everyone else in the village saw how Kimamile's life had improved, the development assistance office was swamped with applications."

Kimamile Kisawani: "When we settled and started using vehicles for transport, we thought that it would be simple, but we realised it was expensive. And on the other hand the cars that we had were falling apart and then our income started falling. The fall of our income made life very difficult, That made us consider having donkeys again. We were no longer able to hire vehicles to transport our things either from the farm, to the market or to home."

Comm: "The Masai always calculated their wealth in terms of cattle, not donkeys. So for the development assistance project, success will come only when the Masai start dealing with the supply and demand themselves. But it's a big step.

"One place the Masai could look to for inspiration is Luale, a small farming community on the top of the Uruguru Mountains, 2000 meters above sea level.

"Luale's terrain makes life extraordinarily difficult for its inhabitants. Donkeys are just about the only way of getting to the market, which is 20 kilometres away. But as usual, donkeys are hard to come by.

"The women of Luale have turned their attentions to the Donkeys, a solution previously unknown to them, and have founded a donkey association."

Flora Dewa: "Our group is called Tumarmca that means to wake up. We have decided to use this name because in the past we had been left behind. Now, we have woken up.

"That's why we women have decided to organise, and to call our organisation Tumarmca."

Beatrice Mpeka: "Here in Morogoro we are lucky that we are in touch with our local transport coordinator, in other districts the bureaucracy is too much, it's too hard to reach the top, it could take at least 5 years to get anything done."

Comm: "The villagers are finding that associations like 'Wake-up' are giving them a voice - to talk to the authorities and the aid agencies.

"It seems so obvious. If assistance is to be sustainable and suited to the needs of Africa's poor, you need to talk to the poor and find out what they want.

"There are signs that after all the theory about so-called 'bottom-up' development, the villagers are finally beginning to see some of it in practice.

"That's what's happening here on the other side of Africa. This is Paos Koto, 250 kilometres outside Dakar, capital of Senegal. In the 1990s a single lane tarmac road was built linking Senegal with neighbouring Gambia and Guinea.

"The road didn't benefit the people of Paos Koto as much as it was supposed to. They couldn't afford to buy a moped, let alone a truck. In August of 2000 the government's Rural Travel and Transport Program, together with Afribike, a South African organization, brought 150 bicycles to Paos Koto. Overnight the village was transformed.

"Yata Niang was a Midwife at Kaba Koto Medical Clinic. Actually, she still is, but since receiving a bicycle through a micro credit loan, she also manufactures and sells flavoured ice to the villagers. Her business has thrived and with the money she has saved, she has hired an employee to do the selling for her."

Yata Niang: "Before I got the bicycle, I didn't have a great market and we didn't sell enough flavoured ice. But now we have enough money to buy enough vegetables and to improve the quality of life, and I want another bicycle to do even more."

Comm: "Yata's entrepreneurial flair would probably never have surfaced had it not been for the bicycles.

"In Paos Koto children can now go to school in minutes instead of hours, healthcare is readily available, and workers can transport their goods and services from one place to another with relative ease and efficiency.

"Bicycles make good people carriers, but in some parts of Africa, people have a much heavier load to carry. This is a bicycle-ambulance. Vehicles like these are the only option for most Africans.

"Throughout the continent, prototype vehicles like these are being tested and manufactured by local businesses. Some of these businesses have been given contracts by the government or transport organisations who will, in turn, supply them to the villagers.

"But these vehicles are expensive to produce (and) in some cases, to supply rural Africa with its vehicles, the transport organisations have had to employ some clever economics.

"Samison Kaweche is a Malawian a farmer growing casava, ground nuts, bananas and beans. His son is an aspiring musician. Through a pilot rural transport project, Samison was given an Ox Cart loan to improve the productivity of his farm."

Samison Kaweche: "I got a loan of 5,500 kwatcha to buy this cart, the cart normally cost a lot more, but because it had worn tires and tubes, that why I was given a discount and bought it half price."

Comm: "With the extra money Samison made from selling more produce, he was able to pay back the loan within three years and is currently negotiating a loan for a second ox cart.

"But all the ox carts in the world wouldn't help Samison, without good tracks or roads. In many villages across rural Africa, tracks and roads that were once built have not been maintained, and have reverted to bush, which is no good to anybody.

"Here in Guinea, the villagers have developed their own solution to the problem of poor paths and roads, by maintaining them themselves.

"This man is Sekou Kadialy Bayo, a deputy district officer in the district of Telimele.

"Today is road maintenance day. It happens three times a year. Guinea is so poor that the government doesn't even have a policy of roadbuilding in the countryside. That's why members of the community have taken matters into their own hands."

Sekou Kadialy Bayo: "Without a good road, one wouldn't really be free. Without the road there is no communication, without communication there is no development. The road is one of the first elements of development, that's why the children, the mothers, the whole family are out today, working on the road, to show everybody how very important the road is. Without the road, no clothes can be brought to the market; no vehicles can come and go. We're always trying to get as many people as possible to help us build and maintain the roads in our locality."

Comm: "The villagers look after only the section of road that runs through their village, so some stretches of road can be in better condition than others, depending on the levels of motivation.

"Along this section of road, which was constructed around 5 years ago, the children of the community get to take up to a week off school for road maintenance. As you can see work is pretty thorough, and the district officers are using it as a model for the other communities.

"Back in Malawi an innovative approach to roadbuilding is being tested. This pilot project not only builds and maintains roads, but provides skills and income to the local people.

"Each village puts forward two candidates, a man and a woman to go through a rigorous selection process. The successful candidates receive training with the project coordinators who will spend about a year and a half with the trainees, issuing them with contracts, before moving on.

"Nasibeko was chosen by her village to train in the Women's Association Group, working to maintain roads."

Nasibeko Chabuka: "I was chosen to work in this group because I am one of the destitute women in the village.

"Since my husband is not working the money I bring into the house meets all the household needs, my husband's needs, my children's needs. So he doesn't see it's a problem, actually he thinks it's a good idea."

Robert Mapemba: "She was one of those destitute women, but on a good day you meet her in town you wouldn't even recognise her. She says, hi. You say, who are you? She says, me! Oh yeah, Nasibeko! Well I felt very proud of it. In the old days they wouldn't come out to town, but now, she's proud. I only hope that she keeps on with her income generating activities so that when we wind up and go to the next village she will be able to sustain herself and her family."

Comm: "Mark Saladi was trained as a contractor. It helped him start his own business, employing over 100 people from the surrounding villages."

Mark Saladi: "My family, they thought that maybe I would be just staying at home jobless. I want to do something important in my life."

Comm: "Although good roads and paths ease the burden of walking, they aren't always the answer to everything. Josephine Mwaukusye, the government's Rural Travel and Transport coordinator for Tanzania, brought us to Mbambara, a small village where her office has started a pilot road-building and maintenance project.

"Here, Jacob Mtega is an orange farmer. Over a decade he's established a grove of about 700 trees.

"With a family of six to support he has to sell all the oranges he can. He values every tree for what he can buy with its yield. This tree will provide antibiotics to fight malaria; this tree will pay school fees. This year, however, he couldn't convert his oranges to cash."

Jacob Mtega: "During the rainy season when the oranges are ripe, in this part of the village where my farm is the roads are very bad, and thus we cant take all the oranges out, and the middlemen or the traders can not come either. Most of us who are in this part of the village just cannot get out."

Comm: "Although they don't have to worry about getting enough vitamin C, this year was a financial disaster for the Mtega family. No bridge or road to speak of meant no trips to the market. The oranges were left to rot.

"What Jacob would like most of all is for Josephine Mwaukusye, to help his community fix the roads, just like they did for a neighbouring hamlet.

"Lusia is also a farmer and, like Jacob, has a big family to take care of. Her farm, and her life, has been transformed by a new road leading out to Tanga."

Luisa Aidano Kibao: "In this village the land is all of ours, each villager is allowed to farm up to 20 acres, if we're capable. And since they have introduced this programme, which makes it easier to transport the crops, we have increased our ability and have been able to cultivate as much land as we're allowed."

Comm: "Lusia's farm is prospering as a result of good quality access, she can travel outside the village whenever she wants. But it also means that other people can get in.

"These are the middlemen, They have travelled from Muheza, Dar Es Salaam, and even from Kenya to take advantage of the newly built roads and to buy up the oranges from the villagers. But the farmers are experiencing the harsh realities of the free market. The traders are the ones with the vehicles and they drive a hard bargain."

Luisa Aidano Kibao: "I agree that those middlemen are extremely exploitative. We hear that the oranges are sold in Dar Es Salaam for 15 shillings, but here, it's 2 shillings. I even heard 100 shillings at the village."

Josephine Mwaukusye: "What we were thinking was to improve the access, in order to make the communities transport their crops to the market. And we thought that by doing that the economic situation in the village will improve. But contrary they have got some negative aspects.

"Frankly speaking, I can't say that somebody thought about the traders. And yes fortunately we have learnt quite a lot of lessons, which we can take on board on improving people's life. I think this will be a very good opportunity for us to plan better for development."

Comm: "Under pressure from creditors, African governments are experimenting with reforms. Most resources for infrastructure improvement are used up on primary and secondary roads and the landscape is pock-marked with grand scale projects that by and large have failed to raise the standard of living of the rural poor.

"But the main international development assistance agencies are focussing on schemes to lift the poor out of poverty. And they are finding that listening to, and catering for, the modest wishes of the people who live in the countryside is the best way forward. Progress at the pace the people want it to be."