The importance of safe transport to improve access to education, particularly for girls has been a subject for much research. However, academic literature or general information on concrete examples of safe transport initiatives is very limited.  Literature searches yield neither any information on costs or cost-effectiveness, nor any impact evaluations of initiatives.  Also the literature does not necessarily focus on ‘safety’ aspects of transport but on improving access to education.

Information from a mix of sources suggests that the main mode of transport being encouraged to improve girls’ access to education is bicycles. There is some suggestion that alternative modes such as buses, ox-carts and ‘walking buses’ are being tried but the information on this is very thin.

This review does not suggest that safe transport initiatives do not exist. But, as this review is limited by what is available in terms of published literature, it only indicates that research on impact and effectiveness of such initiatives is little.