Promoting sustainable mobility in sub-Saharan Africa

The organization and implementation is supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. The kick-off meeting with around 50 participants will be held virtually and will serve to familiarize participants with the content and methods of the event. From October 9 to 15, 2022, the Summer School will then be held as a face-to-face event on the campus of the University of Cape Coast; the team from the University of Kassel will travel.

"We are overwhelmed by the response to our call for participation in our Summer School. Over 600 people showed interest, and we were able to select 40 participants from 400 highly qualified applications in a multi-stage process," Prof.in Dr. Angela Francke tells us enthusiastically. "This shows the high demand for knowledge and exchange on this important topic and how relevant joint global action is."

The target group of this intensive training event are African PhD students, PostDocs as well as people from the field who deal with sustainable mobility and its promotion in an interdisciplinary and interactive way. The group of participants consists of 25 people from Ghana and 15 participants from other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Kenya and Uganda.

The MoveOn Summer School program includes lectures by international experts, workshops and field studies. This will provide all participants with a practice-oriented international exchange on sustainable and safe mobility, which will also serve as a start for further joint activities between the two universities . Young researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa will thus be able to develop their methodological and practical skills while discussing ideas, but also possible barriers to implementation. The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations are essential content of the exchange and shall be reflected in the results, in a scientific publication on active mobility in Africa.

Overall, the University of Kassel is committed to sustainable development in all areas of society and therefore represents the ideal partner for this project. With its Department of Cycling and Local Mob ility, the University has extensive expertise in sustainable mobility in developing countries. Currently, research is also being conducted for the BMBF and DAAD, among others, to promote cycling and walking. "For more than 10 years, I have been active in training young professionals in African countries and we notice that the topic is rather gaining relevance. True to our motto "MoveOn", we want to take action together, learn from each other and advance the mobility revolution," says Prof.in Francke, looking forward to hosting the event with her team and local partners.

CAMA - Collaboration for Active Mobility in Africa
CAMA is funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The CAMA research project will run until 2025.