Report Release: Africa’s response to impacts of COVID-19 on transport & mobility
Produced by the International Road Federation and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, the HVT-funded report "COVID-19 impact on transport and mobility in Africa – A review of policy and practice in seven African countries" has now been released.
The report adresses the COVID-19 measures implemented in seven countries in Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda) providing background and insights into the transport-related restrictions such as those affecting international travel, public transport, and urban and inter-urban travel restrictions. The report assesses the impact of these measures on transport – specifically looking at the impact on individual mobility to various locations such as public transport stations, workplaces, and residential areas, prior to providing insights into the detailed qualitative findings derived from interviews and focus groups discussions. Lastly, detailed case studies for all seven countries are put forward, prior to key findings and recommendations being presented.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments in the seven focus countries applied a wide range of measures spanning from restrictions on public gatherings, curfews, closures of establishments such as restaurants, as well as to significant restrictions on international and national travel and transport more generally. Once first cases were confirmed, all countries eventually imposed the highest level of restrictions for international travel, meaning that international incoming and outgoing flights were banned, and borders were closed. However, the longevity of these measures varied significantly, as well as how countries chose to continue operating thereafter. Importantly, the severity of the restrictions did not always coincide with the rate of virus spread within the countries. Many countries reopened their borders despite rising case numbers for fear of the severe negative impacts on their economy.
Comparing mobility behaviour across all countries and locations between the first and second COVID-19 waves (wave one being defined as March to June 2020; wave two as September to December 2020) it can be observed that the reduction of mobility was generally much larger during the first wave than during the second.
A dedicated webinar was hosted on 27 May 2021 to present the key findings and recommendations.
The report findings constitute the emergent best practices, aggregated based on the data collected and analysed using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to policy formulation, implementation process and community behaviour in the seven countries. The report findings centre around the importance of:
- Creating a national taskforce with regular consultations and follow-up meetings to allow time-sensitive and extensive collaboration among the various actors;
- Integrating representatives of the informal transportation sector;
- Fostering dialogue and harmonising cross-border Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), such as for testing strategies at land borders, which can mitigate the complications for cross-border traffic;
- Enforcing and implementing a thorough Monitoring and Evaluation process at all levels;
- Improving coordination within the transport sector;
- Encouraging a more rapid and effective development of user-friendly and safe transport infrastructure environments;
- Implementing stable pricing policies to maintain public transport affordable;
The report concludes by drawing out four key policy recommendations for transport stakeholders that can provide a way forward during the “new normal”.
Digital Toolkit for Energy and Mobility Released
Global Roadmap of Action towards Sustainable Mobility (GRA) as part of the Sustainable Mobility for All (Sum4All) partnership
The International Road Federation (IRF) is proud to have contributed to the “Digital Toolkit for Energy and Mobility” which presents a discourse on some of the best practices to achieve energy efficiency in transport through the lens of three policies: promote public discussions on new mobility solutions e.g., autonomous vehicles, e-mobility, and on-demand transportation; expand public transport infrastructure; and plan for integrated multimodal transport networks.
The development of this toolkit is part of a comprehensive effort undertaken by the Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) partnership to elaborate an actionable Global Roadmap of Action toward Sustainable Mobility (GRA). Led by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme under the SuM4All umbrella, the toolkit is developed for public policymakers, transport and energy experts, researchers, and the wider public and private sector stakeholders interested in or implementing action on low emission mobility addressing the nexus between transport and energy.
Latest news
IRF launches new Knowledge repository on COVID-19 and Transport
A new, comprehensive knowledge resource centre on COVID-19 and Transport was launched yesterday by the International Road Federation (IRF) thanks to a grant from the COVID-19 Response & Recovery Transport Research Fund (2020) managed by the High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT). The new repository is hosted in the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP) portal and has as objective to fast-track access – especially for low-income countries - to knowledge, experience, learning resources and good practices on COVID-19 & Transport.
“While addressing the emergency that COVID-19 has created, this transformation of the gTKP portal will also allow to support efforts for a transformative transport agenda post-COVID by ensuring that access to knowledge created within other relevant programmes and initiatives (ReCAP, HVT and UNRSC) is made effectively accessible and used to inform decisions that will shape the recovery” said Susanna Zammataro, IRF Director General, while presenting the repository at a dedicated webinar hosted by IRF yesterday, 4th March.
“COVID-19 has exposed many critical areas of required research such as transport-related emission and clean air modelling, infection control on transport systems, transport demand post-Covid-19, food security and resilience of transport systems etc. This is an opportunity to work even closer together as a global network with a common vision of enabling sustainable mobility for all” commented Bernard Obika, High Volume Transport Team Leader.
The gTKP portal features a wealth of case studies, research papers, publications, reports, presentations and more, all organised around 5 key sections: COVID-19, High Volume Transport, Road Safety, Rural Roads, gTKP archives. It functions as a free on-line library and a gate to access other relevant knowledge repositories and resources. Users and other organisations are actively encouraged to enhance both the dynamism and interactivity of the portal by contributing their own knowledge and experience in the form of new reports, articles, case studies, research papers, publications, and more.
“While we move forward in this journey, we welcome ongoing comments and suggestions as to how we can continue to improve the content and outreach of the portal to meet evolving needs. More than this, we welcome the opportunity to work with many other organisations in the transport sector and beyond to make gTKP a joint effort and a shared platform” continued IRF Director General. “Sharing knowledge is key to progress in the transport sector. Together we can build a service that makes a decisive contribution to the achievement of this vital global objective » she concluded.
The COVID-19 repository is accessible on the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership website.
COVID-19 Response & Recovery: the IRF at work on two HVT Projects
Earlier this year, the COVID-19 Response & Recovery Transport Research Fund was established by the Research for Community Access Partnership (ReCAP) and the High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT) as part of the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID now FCDO) response to COVID-19.
COVID-19 is having a devastating socio-economic impact globally and has been acutely felt not least by people in low-income countries (LIC). Transport is at the centre of managing the spread of the pandemic and will be key to ensuring rapid and sustained recovery. A Call for Action highlighted the need for: a) curation of LIC-specific information, b) a common platform for COVID-19 impacts information, and, c) transformative transport agenda for a post-COVID-19 world.
In response to this Call, two IRF projects were selected for implementation and have commenced in November 2020. Firstly, the IRF, in collaboration with the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, has started working on the six-month project “Africa’s response to COVID-19 and its impact on transport and mobility of people and goods. A review of policy and practice in seven African countries.”. This project focusses on Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
Specifically, this research project aims to fill the gap between COVID-19 policy design and implementation and impact by gathering data on the COVID-19 related restrictions that were implemented in these countries at the institutional level, and how these impacted transport and mobility of people and goods on the ground. The project will provide evidence-based suggestions that policy makers in Africa should consider when defining responses to potential future waves of COVID-19 and recovery measures.
Secondly, the IRF was awarded a three-month project to transform and enhance the existing Global Transport Knowledge Portal (gTKP). This platform, originally created through generous funding by DFID, and which has been hosted by the IRF since 2009 will be enhanced to fast-track LIC (and others) access to knowledge, experience, learning resources and good practices on COVID-19 response and impacts. Further, the aim is to work in partnership with other initiatives and organisations, and to see gTKP grow into a fully-fledged capacity-building hub in the near future.
The project intends to locate and gather currently available and relevant resources for LICs, and to provide effective access to hands-on knowledge and expertise that can inform action at all levels and help build local capacity, as well as to identify the needs and potential gaps.
For more information, please contact the IRF Secretariat at info@irfnet.ch.
