Connecting compact communities with access to the city: could the 15 minute city concept be useful in Lagos?
by Olamide Udoma-Ejorh, Director, Lagos Urban Development Initiative
Professor Carlos Moreno, Paris City Hall’s special envoy for smart cities, is regarded as the key theorist behind the concept of the 15-minute city. The concept aims to improve quality of life by ensuring that everything that a resident needs is no more than fifteen minutes away. Despite the interest and recognition that the concept has received around the world we are yet to really ask how the concept can be used positively in African cities. I brought together three mobility stakeholders who have worked in Lagos, to unpack if a 15-minute city is indeed relevant to, or possible in, Lagos using six social functions; living, working, supplying, caring, learning and enjoying.
Calling all Entrepreneurs & Businesses working in
Food, Health and Climate!
Apply for our Circular Economy Showcase to be incubated as
WEBINAR | Creating a culture of meaningful collaboration for transformed urban mobility and sustained climate action in African Cities
Tuesday, 12 October 2021 - 2pm-3:30pm CAT
As part of the Scaling Up and Empowering Movements for Climate Change Advocacy (SEMCCA) project, this webinar reflects on the importance of building a collective movement for transformed urban mobility in African cities, the importance of advocacy for advancing collective effort and the mechanisms available to strengthen collaboration between different mobility actors and create spaces for meaningful collaboration.
WEBINAR | ACE Africa Action and Learning Festival for Circular Innovation:
How to Incorporate Circular and Sustainable Practices into Your Business Tuesday, 26 October 2021 - 2pm-3:30pm CAT
As part of the Accelerating Circular Economy in Africa (ACE Africa) project, ICLEI Africa and Stellenbosch University LaunchLab are excited to present this webinar to explore critical elements that entrepreneurs can or should consider for the successful take-off and growth of circular businesses in Africa.
A conversation between: - Himkaar Singh, Compost Kitchen - Deborah Nartey, Footprints Africa - Simone Smit, UNDP
WHAT HAPPENED LAST MONTH |
Future-proofing urban mobility: Exploring routes to resilience
As part of the 2021 #AfricanMobilityMonth campaign for #TransformingMobility, ICLEI Africa reflected on why African cities need to build resilience into their urban mobility. This need arises from the current nature of urban mobility in Africa cities. African urban mobility is: - car-centric, which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, - segregated and favours single-modal routes, that are often unsafe, inequitable and not designed for or with the users, and - unreliable and inflexible when faced with shocks like COVID-19, rapid urbanisation, and climate change.
Many of the urban mobility issues and challenges faced in African cities are linked primarily to the inherent social inequalities, poor infrastructure management, poor urban planning and lack of governance and financial support. Despite the dire situation, African cities are striving for transformation. ICLEI Africa had the privilege of hosting three city partitioners from Johannesburg, Kigali and Cario who shared the steps their projects are taking toward #TransformingMobilty, as part of the Future Proofing Urban Mobility Webinar. In Johannesburg, a model-driven study using COPERT, a vehicle emissions calculator, identified the most influential changes to reduce the city’s carbon emission. Whereas in Cario, a survey-driven study as part of SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan) process identified priority opportunities of improvement. And in Kigali, and Rwanda in general, the plans to rollout a financial support model for scaling-up the use of e-motos (electric motorcycle taxis). If you missed the session or want details, see the recording here. Drawing from these experiences and others, transitioning African urban mobility will require putting people at the centre, making public transport the best choice, promoting low-carbon transport and reducing travel distance and integrating planning, transport and service delivery, see AfricanMobilityMonth Report 2020 for more details.
RISE Africa, brought to you by ICLEI Africa, with support from our partners:
Our Future Cities, African Centre for Cities, NRF, South African Cities network, African Circular Economy Network, Djouman, The Nature of Cities, IIED, WWF, AU Youth Envoy
