The World Bank has identified as one of its goals improved decision making and pro-poor resource allocation in transport and rural utilities, and through its TRISP programme aims to strengthen the demand for, and improve access to relevant knowledge for stakeholders (defined as those working in transport and rural utilities in developing countries).

DFID is working with the Bank on the TRISP project, and as an initial contribution has proposed a knowledge demand assessment which will:

• Review what is known about patterns and processes of knowledge demand from the literature, and what are the gaps in this understanding;
• Assess the (expressed vs latent??) demand for information and knowledge by different categories of the stakeholder community dealing with transport issues;
• Describe the patterns of information use by each category of stakeholder, and constraints to effective access and uptake;
• Map the knowledge and learning environments in the World Bank and DFID and their transport information products with intended audiences, circulation and evidence of impact.

The Literature Review
The first activity will be a literature review to identify existing knowledge about the demand for information on transport issues in rural areas in developing countries, and current understanding about the role of information and knowledge in poverty alleviation and policy processes. The review will build on ODI’s current work for FAO on information for livelihoods, and for DFID on research-policy linkages.