Mobility in African City-Regions: Towards Effective Indicators and Governance
The Mobility in African City-Regions: Towards Effective Indicators and Governance project is a collaborative project between four City regions: Barcelona, Dakar, Gauteng, and Maputo under the auspices of Metropolis within the framework of the Metropolis call for Pilot Projects 2021-2023. The project aims to create space for sharing experiences and learning in different spheres of metropolitan life, strategically focusing on metropolitan governance, economic development, sustainability, social inclusion, gender equality, and quality of life. The project seeks to develop a set of sustainable and inclusive transport indicators and drive dialogue on appropriate governance arrangements to support transport and mobility improvements. The project duration is 2 years from 2021-2023.
The GCRO is supporting the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (as the main signatory for the project) to lead a partnership with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) to organise, facilitate and report on the work of the participating city regions. The expected outputs are a set of transport indicators as well as a knowledge report and discussion document on COVID-19 related transport impacts across the regions.
Update
On 1 June the Africa Mobility Network came together online for the second official project workshop to gain insight into the experience of each region on the use and application of indicators. Rashid Seedat, the Executive Director of the GCRO, opened the meeting indicating the opportunity to learn how indicators are being used in different regions to support transport and mobility. The project aims to arrive at a set of mobility indicators that relate strongly to the African context and assist improved mobility governance.
The participants were asked to each share a mode of transport (other than their frequently used mode) that they observe and what it is about that mode that interests them. The responses varied from informal minibus, to bicycles, to wheelchair users. The exercise grounded the meeting in the multimodal transport realities of cities and sparked curiosity about what it is that mobility and transport professionals need to be aware of in their planning and operations.
The meeting then had presentations from Barcelona, Gauteng, and Maputo on the indicators being used in each respective region. What emerged from the presentations was that each region was at very different stages in the maturity of its indicators and their application. It became clear that indicators can serve both operational performance but also policy evaluation. All of this relies on accurate and reliable data. The argument was made that in Africa often transport authorities and operators are having to make decisions with very limited data and information.
The meeting was closed by Ms. Maria Bauixu, who indicated how important the context is but also that efforts to improve the experience of vulnerable users in particular women and children.
Last updated: 1 November 2022.