Mobility in African cities

| Subject: Mobility and Transport, International Relations

Exchange of experiences among the cities of Maputo, Dakar and Barcelona

The international seminar "Mobility and Citizenship in African Cities: Exchange of Experiences among Maputo, Dakar and Barcelona" took place on 10-11 July 2019, an event co-organised by the AMB's International Cooperation Service and the African and Intercultural Studies Centre (CEA).

The two-day seminar analysed the challenges in mobility and public spaces in Africa, focusing on the metropolises of Mozambique and Senegal. Within a context of urbanisation linked to industrialisation and economic growth, African cities (especially capitals and main cities) have become recipients of rural population. Consequently, their urban population growth rate have risen to 4%, twice the world average. This situation poses a series of metropolitan challenges related to environmental sustainability, governance and public financing, as well as infrastructure and public services.

The seminar included the participation of different experts in urban transport and public spaces from Dakar (Senegal) and Maputo (Mozambique), as well as academics and experts in the tertiary sector from the metropolitan area of Barcelona. The event was inaugurated by the Director of the Area of International Relations and Cooperation of the AMB, Oriol Illa, and it included the participation of experts in the fields of mobility and public spaces from the AMB.

Participation of experts in urban mobility and public spaces

Mozambican architect and urban planner Aina Nangy, from the NGO Architecture Sans Frontières (ASF), spoke about Maputo's current situation regarding mobility and public spaces, areas in which the informal economy leaves a clear mark, whether it is with unregulated trade on streets and squares (sale of food and drink on the streets, provision of services, etc.), or with the predominant informal transport systems. In regard to public spaces, Maputo comprises the "non-consolidated city" (informal districts) and the colonial-style "consolidated city", which focuses on services and commerce. In regard to urban mobility, it is important to highlight the massive presence of road traffic in the city, especially informal transport such as "chapas" (vans) and illegal transport like "my love" (open flatbed trucks), an unsafe mode of transport which poses many important challenges.

According to the Director General of the Dakar Urban Transport Executive Centre (CETUD), Thierno Birahim AW, Senegal endures similar metropolitan transport situations. Mr Birahim AW presented some of the strategies which are currently being implemented in the Senegalese capital, including the Dakar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the modernisation of the vehicle fleet and the professionalisation of informal transport so it can be integrated into the formal system. In Dakar, today most people prefer to move around on foot (70%) than on public transport (24%), levels which are environmentally sustainable and in line with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Environmental Sustainability. However, a considerable investment is required to improve quality for pedestrians and the public transport service in order to transform the latter's precarious image and increase the current levels of comfort, regularity and punctuality whilst also improving access to public services. All of this should result in establishing public transport as an attractive option for the whole population of Dakar, not only for the underprivileged classes.

The seminar also included the participation of architect and UN Habitat collaborator Montse Gibert, who spoke about some of the challenges and solutions on urban mobility carried out on an institutional-management level in Kigali (Rwanda) and Addis Abeba (Ethiopia); and Gerard Horta, an anthropologist member of the University of Barcelona's Research Group on Social Exclusion and Control (GRECS) and author of an ethnographic study on the causes of the high accident rate of Cape Verde's informal urban and interurban transport.

The event on mobility and public spaces in African cities concluded with two discussion panels open to the general public which took place in the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona.

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