Presentation made at the workshop on Socio-spatial disparities in accessibility and access to services, organised by the Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies and Community of Practice on Fairness on 21 November 2018. Presentation by Ana Moreno Monroy, OECD Regional Development and Tourism Division, CFE. More information: http://www.oecd.org/regional/

1. Past, Present and Future
Measuring access to
services in OECD
countries
Ana More no Monroy, RDT/CFE
Workshop on socio -spat ial disparit ie s in
acce ssibil it y and acce ss t o se rv ice s
I spra , N ov e mber 2 1 s t, 2 0 1 8

2. Past

3. Early works (1993-2012) focused on challenges facing
rural areas and analysed:
Identification of trends, service types
and provision models
Trends impacting service
availability in rural areas
Strategies for service delivery
Governance issues related to
public service delivery

4. Population ageing will accelerate sharply
Number of people older than 65 per 100 people of working age
between 20 and 64 years old, 1980-2050
Key trends impacting rural service
provision

5. Elderly dependency ratio greatest in rural remote regions
Elderly dependency ratio by OECD rural typology, 2002-2015
Key trends impacting rural service
provision
22
24
26
28
30
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Elderly dependency ratio
Predominantly rural close to cities Predominantly rural remote Predominantly urban and intermediate

6. Net public social expenditure as a percentage of GDP, 1995 and
2016
Key trends impacting rural service
provision

7. Growing pressures on public spending
Annual average growth rate in per capita health expenditure,
real terms, 2003 to 2016 (or nearest year)
Key trends impacting rural service
provision

8. Vertical and horizontal integration
of public services
Strategies: Integrated service delivery
Horizontal integration
Vertical
integration
Professional service sectors
Central government
Housing ministry
/ department
Education
ministry /
department
Health ministry /
department
Local government
Local housing
authority
Local education
authorities /
school boards
Health boards
Delivery office Housing officer School
General
Practitioner
office

9. For example:
E-services
E.g., telemedicine, remote/mobile imaging
On demand services
E.g. mobile education and skills training, mobile transport
Outreach service delivery through “hub and spoke” models
Strategies: Flexible approaches

10. Present

11. New orthodoxy:
Effective spatial management is connected to economic and
social development and wellbeing
Sectoral policies have spatial dimensions that need to be
coordinated
Operationalised by strategic documents across functional areas
that set out scenarios and medium to long term goals
• E.g. Japan –– “compact” and “networked”
• Poland – linking small and medium sized cities
Strategies: Integrated spatial
planning

12. Incorporation of inequality in access angle in national and
territorial reviews
Use of grid-level impedance grids to estimate median times at
different territorial units
Estimation of impact of transport infrastructure investments
by type of region (urban, intermediate, rural)
Recent developments

13. Population counts are a reasonable approximation for accessibility
to basic services (Alasia et al, 2017)
Access to population as a proxy for
access to services
Cumulative accessibility index:
 Relies on road network built
from Open Street Map and
national road information
 Limited to one mode (driving)
 Scale dependent

14. Accessibility to upper secondary schools
Access to schools and health facilities
in regions - Hidalgo
Number of hospitals Number of localities Number of people % population
None 223 483 888 18.1
One 443 921 272 34.4
Two 120 213 059 7.9
Three 580 838 872 31.3
Four 144 223 254 8.3
Accessibility to hospitals within a 60
min drive

15. Cumulative accessibility index
From access to inequalities in access

16. 1 x 1 km grid-cell level
information on time to
closest city (of 50K+) at global
scale
Considers all modes
 No information on mode
choice or travel purpose
Grid-level estimation on travel times
Median time to closest city
using global travel impedance
grid

17. Accessibility improvement in EU regions, 1990-2012
Estimation of impact of changes in
accessibility
17
Bottom quintile in 1990 Top quintile in 1990

18. Positive effect of market access appears to be the strongest
over long distances
1% improvement in accessibility increases GDP by 0.2%,
employment by 0.7% and regional population by 0.6%, on
average
Percentage gains in GDP, population and employment for the
same increase in accessibility are not statistically different for
rural, intermediate and urban TL3 regions
Absolute gains are larger for more urban places and the cost
of achieving the same increase is likely to differ substantially
between different types of areas
The impact of road accessibility
improvements on EU regions
18

19. Future

20. A lens on rural public service provision that combines:
Spatial considerations (role of medium and long term
planning)
Public finance/assessing costs
Emerging service delivery strategies—new approaches and
technologies
Multi level governance and multi sectoral perspectives
(regulation etc.)
Bringing it all together

21. Strong case for spatially aligned service provision models
adapted to the current and future realities of areas by their
location and level of density
Monetary estimates and projections of cost of service
delivery by type of area
Map and anticipate social and economic trends and suggest
strategies to adapt needs
Identify vulnerable populations and manage environmental
risks
Propose feasible service delivery alternatives to manage
demographic transition
What is missing?

22. Estimation of future service delivery needs at fine-scale using
population projections at grid-cell level
Demand: Population by age group
Supply: Scale + alternative forms of delivery
Complement existing work on future infrastructure
investments
Add modelling of delivery costs by scale and type of service
Infrastructure needs for changing
levels of density