Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin are experiencing rapid urban growth, supported by strong demographic growth. Between 2018 and 2030, the cities in these four countries are expected to have an extra 17 million inhabitants. By 2030, the populations of Ouagadougou and Bamako are expected to double: these two capitals will reach 5.4 and 4.6 million inhabitants, respectively. Lome and Cotonou are forecast, with lower growth rates, to reach roughly 3 million inhabitants. These metropolitan areas will need to restructure to meet the challenges inherent to their size. However, their growth-related challenges should not overshadow those of the other, so called secondary cities. Although urban migration and growth tend to center on the capitals, the secondary cities, which are much smaller, will by 2030 see increases in population exceeding the capacity of their infrastructure systems. An extra 10 million inhabitants will move to urban areas that often lack infrastructure and basic urban services. This report focuses on a cross analysis of the work conducted simultaneously in 2019 in the four West African countries. The methodology adopted is described below. In each of the countries, under the authority of the ministries in charge of urban mobility, the Consultant produced a diagnostic report and organized a national mobility forum involving all public and private institutional players (at central and local level), civil society and technical and financial partners. Conducted under the supervision of the pertinent ministries and local authorities, these national workshops provided the opportunity to discuss the experts' recommendations in more depth and to define the elements of reform required to enable implementation of a sustainable urban mobility policy. This exercise made it possible to propose, for each country, a draft urban mobility policy letter, a national strategy document in line with the EASI concept (Enable-Avoid-Shift-Improve), and a priority action plan for implementation. A sub-regional workshop was organized in Bamako on 6 and 7 February 2020 with a view to promoting the sharing of experience and enabling a comparative analysis of the methods and results. It was attended by delegations from the four countries covered by this SSATP support program, creating an opportunity to define a shared vision of urban mobility, both for the capital cities and for the secondary cities, and to identify areas of transnational cooperation. This report is based on the work conducted in the four countries and offers a common interpretation of the situation in the four countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo), supported by an analysis of the specific local contexts and national situations.

This book critically explores the relationship between mobility patterns, transport provision and urban development in East African cities. Bringing together contributions on the futures of mobility in urban East Africa, the chapters examine transport provision, mobility patterns, location-specific modes of transport and transformative factors for transport and mobility in the rapidly urbanising region. The book outlines different mobility needs to be addressed in transport planning to serve and shape the respective cities and examines the decision-making process in transport planning and the level of accountability to the public. The contributors show the dialectic between innovation in transport/mobility and urban development under rapid urbanisation and discusses how to practically integrate mobility and transport provision into urban development. This book will be of interest to scholars in urban planning, transport planning, transport geography, social sciences and African studies.

African cities are growing at an extraordinary rate. Unfortunately, many cities are growing so fast that national, provincial, and city governments cannot manage how they develop or assure the provision of the services people need. This has many negative consequences for national and city economies and the people who live in these areas. Urban mobility is one of the key challenges for African cities. In many cities, the transport system has failed to keep up with urban growth. There is inadequate provision of dependable, affordable, and safe transport services to meet the travel needs of the people. Private vehicle ownership and use is increasing, congesting the roads. The informal sector provides much of the general transport service, using very large numbers of small vehicles. At the same time, the travel system impacts the city through congestion, increased costs, pollution, accidents, noise, intrusion, and long delays for both users and non-users. Cities cannot resolve these things alone. National Governments need to lead by guiding the development of cities, developing urban mobility policies, improving the implementation frameworks, and mobilizing finance. Critical to this strategy is ensuring city level capabilities are built to develop and implement locally appropriate strategies. The Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) aims to provide African decision-makers with the tools necessary to support the implementation of such policies and measures. Within this work, SSATP has developed guidance and prepared specific recommendations for urban mobility policy for 12 Sub-Saharan African countries. This note also provides a concise synthesis of the key issues and guidance, which can then be read in detail in the technical reports.

This book presents the results of the "African Urban Management" project designed to study comparatively governmental responses to the gap between the realities of official plans and perspectives and the mushrooming world of the urban poor in African cities.

The book considers urban mobilities and immobilities in the Global South through an exploration of the theoretical and methodological entry points that can be used to further the agenda of transport planning. Transport system improvements can (and do) have complex and unequal impacts on different sectors of society. Conventional approaches to analysing travel demand and transport system performance developed in the ‘Global North’ are typically ill-equipped to identify and understand the complexities and inequities in urban areas of the Global South. Using case studies from urban Africa and Asia, the book addresses the need to understand the ‘lived world’ of mobilities and use this knowledge to address issues that are central to our urban existence in the 21st century.

This collection of field-based case-studies examines the role and contributions of Africa’s informal public transport (also referred to as paratransit) to the production of city forms and urban economies, as well as the voices, experiences, and survival tactics of its poor and stigmatised workforce. With attention to the question of what a micro-level analysis of the organisation and politics of informal public transport in urbanizing Africa might tell us about the precarious existence and agency of its informal workforce, it explores the political and socio-economic conditions of contemporary African cities, spanning from Nairobi and Dar es Salaam to Harare, Cape Town, Kinshasa and Lagos. Mapping, analysing and comparing the everyday experiences of informal transport operators across the continent, this book sheds light on the multiple challenges facing Africa’s informal transport workers today, as they negotiate the contours of city life, expand their horizons of possibility and make the most of their time. It thus offers directions for more effective policy response to urban public transport, which is changing fundamentally and rapidly in light of neoliberal urban planning strategies and ‘World Class’ city ambitions.