About this series

The webinar series “Data and Knowledge to Support Innovations, Resilience, and Inclusivity in Transport” is funded by UK International Development, and is co-hosted by the Development Impact Transport Program – ieConnect for Impact - and the High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme.

This series will cover a range of topics related to evidence, knowledge, and methodologies to support more effective, resilient and inclusive transport investments. Each webinar explores themes associated with developing resilient transport infrastructure and asset management, applications of innovative technologies and data for more effective transport, best practices in large-scale transport network planning, as well as evidence on gender and inclusion in transport investments. The series has been developed in response to demand from transport practitioners for access to the latest research findings on transport and will further provide a platform for dialogue on these topics.

Using Data and Digital Technologies to Transform Road Safety

Using Data and Digital Technologies to Transform Road Safety

The WHO’s 2023 Global Status Report shows a marginal decline in road fatalities, from 1.35 million in 2016 to 1.19 million in 2021, however the toll remains unacceptably high. Road crashes remain the leading cause of death for young people aged 5–29, and faster progress is needed to achieve the SDG target to halve the fatalities by 2030. As the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims approaches, join Development Impact's ieConnect program and the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) for a discussion on how evidence-based data and digital technologies can inform and transform road safety policies in resource-constrained settings. 

This webinar will highlight innovative approaches to collecting, analyzing, and leveraging data for diagnostics and evaluations. The ieConnect team will delve into its work in Nairobi, Kenya, where diagnostic tools, data analytics and impact evaluation are informing road safety policies and incentivizing safer driving. The GRSF will demonstrate how to operationalize these data for the development of national policies, institutional accountability, and for leveraging road safety investments.

8:00 am – 8:05 am

Setting the Context and Global Road Safety Status Update

Marisela Ponce de León Valdés – Senior Transport Specialist, Africa Transport Policy Program, World Bank

8:05 am – 8:35 am

Diagnosing and Evaluating Road Safety Policies: The Nairobi Case Study

Sveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank

8:35 am – 8:45 am

Information and Strategy in Lemon Markets: Improving Safety in Informal Transit

Erin Kelley – Assistant Professor, the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

8:45 am – 9:10 am

Operationalizing Data for National Policies, Institutional Accountability, and Road Safety Investments

Dipan Bose (PhD) – Senior Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility, World Bank

Arif Uddin – Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility, World Bank

9:10 am – 9:30 am

Q&A

Moderated by Marisela Ponce de León Valdés

Marisela_PdLV

Marisela Ponce de León Valdés, Senior Transport Specialist, Africa Transport Policy Program, World Bank

Marisela is a Senior Transport Specialist and the Road Safety Pillar Lead within the Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP). Prior to this she was a Transport Specialist with the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), where she was leading the GRSF activities related to Health, Disability, Motorcyclists’ Safety, and Education (Safe Journeys to School), while being the focal point for Asia for the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). Marisela has also been supporting the chairing of the Multilateral Development Banks Road Safety Working Group (MDBsRSWG). Before joining the World Bank, she was the Road Safety Focal Point for the Transport Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Previously, she served as Road Safety Injury and Violence Prevention Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) in its Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) in the Philippines and for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in its Mexico Country Office. Prior to this, she served at the International Relations Department of the Technical Secretariat of the National Council for Accident Prevention of Mexico (STCONAPRA). Marisela holds a Master's Degree in Public Health, specialized in Road Traffic Injury Prevention, from the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom) and a Bachelor Degree in International Relations from the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Monterrey – ITESM (Mexico).

Dipan_Bose
Dipan Bose (PhD) – Senior Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility, World Bank

Dipan Bose is a Senior Transport Specialist at the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility. He is a road safety engineer by training, with research experience in vehicle safety and multi-sectoral road safety management, focusing on designing road injury interventions for low- and middle-income countries. In his current role, he supports governments across World Bank regions in developing national road safety programs by providing technical support and preparing and supervising World Bank-financed projects. He serves as the World Bank’s lead for the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, which aims to improve road safety in selected cities and countries in the developing world. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2012, he was a Research Scientist at the University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics, focusing on vehicle restraint systems and developing injury risk functions for pedestrians and vulnerable occupants. He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Erin_Kelley
Erin Kelley – Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

Erin Kelley is an Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and a consultant with DEC at the World Bank. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER, and an Affiliate of BREAD, IZA, the IGC and J-PAL. In her research, she studied firm growth, refugee welfare, and technology adoption using randomized field experiments. Her ongoing work includes projects in Bangladesh, Kenya, and India.

Arif_Uddin
Arif Uddin – Transport Specialist, Global Road Safety Facility, World Bank

Arif Uddin, a Transport Specialist at the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), based in Washington DC, manages the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) in Africa and leads World Bank’s road safety initiatives in Eastern and Southern Africa. He also leads GRSF’s global efforts on Safer School Journeys and Motorcycle Safety. A civil engineer from Bangladesh, Arif holds a master's in Highway and Transportation Engineering and has over 12 years of experience in Development Banks, NGOs and Research. He is passionate about creating evidence-based, cost-effective road safety measures for low- and middle-income countries.

Sveta Milusheva WB_small
Sveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

Sveta Milusheva leads the ieConnect program of impact evaluations focused on transport investments and within this program leads the work on urban mobility. Her research interests include infrastructure and information & communication technologies, population mobility, health and gender. In particular, her work focuses on the application of new big data sources, such as mobile phone data and crowdsourced data, to study questions in development and to evaluate the impact of development interventions. She received her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and her BA in Economics and International Studies from Emory University.

Robert Marty

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank

Robert Marty is a Data Scientist in the Development Impact (DECDI) Group at the World Bank where his work focuses on impact evaluations of transportation investments, including economic corridors and road safety. In particular, his work focuses on leveraging innovative data sources for impact evaluations, such as satellite imagery, crowdsourced data, and private sector data sources. He holds an MS in Computational Operations Research and a Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary.

Available soon

Unpacking Informal Transport Markets in Sub-Saharan African Cities

Unpacking Informal Transport Markets in Sub-Saharan African Cities

Given the scale and reach of informal transport networks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), cities in the region would simply not function without them. This session continues the exploration into the complex world of informal transit in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following our discussion on the sector's value, we shift focus to quantifying the real-world impact of informal transit's market structure and service characteristics on commuters. Opening the session, Geetika Nagpal (World Bank) will deepen our understanding of what commuters value in private transport systems in Lagos, Nigeria. Next, Lucas Conwell (University College London) will present a study that quantifies the gains from low-cost interventions aimed at improving services provided by privately-operated minibus taxis in Cape Town, South Africa. Oluchi Mbonu (World Bank) will then bring us to Johannesburg, South Africa, where private associations of minibuses divide the city into territories. Fatima Arroyo-Arroyo (World Bank) will continue the session with experiences on reforming informal transport in Africa, the reform levers identified, and how to go about it in practice. Finally, Robert Marty (World Bank) will explore the value of crowdsourced passenger feedback to understand matatu safety in Nairobi, Kenya.

8:00 am – 8:10 am

Introduction and ieConnect work in Lagos

Geetika Nagpal (PhD), Research Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

8:10 am – 8:25 am

Quantifying the gains from low-cost interventions to improve privately-operated transport

Lucas Conwell (PhD), Lecturer in Economics, University College London

8:25 am – 8:40 am

How does spatial market segmentation affect firms' ability to meet demand across space?

Oluchi Mbonu (PhD) – Research Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank

8:40 am – 8:55 am

Reforming Informal Transport in Africa

Fatima Arroyo-Arroyo, Senior Urban Transport Specialist, World Bank

8:55 am – 9:10 am

Crowdsourcing Safety: The Value of Passenger Feedback for Measuring Driving Safety

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank Group

9:10 am – 9:30 am

Q&A

Moderated by Geetika Nagpal

Fatima_Arroyo_Arroyo

Fatima Arroyo Arroyo, Senior Urban Transport Specialist, World Bank

Fatima Arroyo-Arroyo works in the Transport Global Practice, supporting the transportation agenda in Africa. Fatima is an enthusiast of integrating multidisciplinary dimensions in transport projects, such as fragility considerations, climate adaptation and technology. She leads urban transport projects with a focus in vulnerable groups, non-motorized transport, public transportation and the formalization of informal transport operators, especially in fragile environments. Before joining Africa region, she supported the urban transport and urban railway agenda in Latin-America and East Asia. She holds a Master´s in Civil Engineering from École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She also holds a Master in International Business Administration.

 

Geetika_Nagpal

Geetika Nagpal (PhD) – Research Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

Geetika Nagpal (PhD) is a Research Economist in the Development Impact (DECDI) Group at the World Bank. Her research is at the intersection of urban and development economics, focusing on housing markets and transportation infrastructure. Her work combines new sources of granular data with natural experiments to understand how private actors respond to government regulations and shape cities. She received her PhD in Economics from Brown University and holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford.

 

Lucas_Conwell

Lucas Conwell (PhD) – Lecturer in Economics, University College London

Lucas Conwell is a Lecturer in Economics at University College London. His work at the intersection of development and spatial economics focuses on informal urban institutions in developing countries as well as the government's role in infrastructure provision. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 2023.

 

Oluchi_Mbonu

Oluchi Mbonu (PhD) – Research Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank

Oluchi Mbonu is a Research Economist in the Sustainability and Infrastructure team of the World Bank’s Development Research Group. Her research lies at the intersection of development and urban economics, with a focus on how mobility and public transportation systems in developing countries impact economic outcomes. Her work uses administrative data, high-frequency mobility data, and randomized control trials to study how barriers to mobility affect welfare, market integration, and access to jobs. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

 

Robert Marty

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank

Robert Marty is a Data Scientist in the Development Impact (DECDI) Group at the World Bank where his work focuses on impact evaluations of transportation investments, including economic corridors and road safety. In particular, his work focuses on leveraging innovative data sources for impact evaluations, such as satellite imagery, crowdsourced data, and private sector data sources. He holds an MS in Computational Operations Research and a Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary.

Sixth Session: Gender, Inclusion and Sustainable Transport

Gender, Inclusion and Sustainable Transport

This webinar will showcase the critical role of gender in shaping sustainable transportation systems and the urgency to invest in feminist data systems. The session will touch upon new work about key issues facing women and transport: women’s access to transport, their safety while using it, how transport is shaping women’s engagement in emerging sectors, like those in the gig economy, and women’s leadership and employment in the transport sector itself. Neil Ebenezer and Deepty Jain will discuss the gender research HVT has been leading on women’s security and the intersectionality of gender, transport, and poverty. Keisha Mayuga will introduce the work done by Women Mobilize Women (WMW@GIZ), including new data on women in the gig economy and women's employment in the transport sector. Girija Borker will showcase DIME’s work in the ieConnect program on women’s mobility and the results of some tested solutions to promote safe travel.

8:00am – 8:05am

Introduction

Colleen Duggan,Team Leader, Sustainable Inclusive Economies (SIE) Program, International Development Research Centre

8:05am – 8:25am

Empowering women’s participation in the transport workforce

Keisha Mayuga, Co-lead of Women Mobilize Women

8:25am – 8:45am

The intersection between gender, transport and poverty

Neil Ebenezer (PhD), Team Leader, HVT

8:45am – 9:05am

Inclusive transport systems; ensuring equitable access for women

Girija Borker (PhD) – Economist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

9:05am – 9:30am

Q&A

Moderated by Colleen Duggan

ImageColleen Duggan – Team Leader, Sustainable Inclusive Economies (SIE) Program at the International Development Research Centre

Colleen Duggan is the Team Leader for the Sustainable Inclusive Economies (SIE) Program at the International Development Research Centre. The SIE program supports Southern-led applied research to promote quality economic opportunities for disadvantaged women and youth in the transition to low carbon economies. This includes piloting and scaling of solutions that foster gender equality and address structural barriers that stand in the way of women’s economic empowerment and increase access to public and private financing so that Global South economies are more equitable and transformative. During her 20+ years at IDRC, Colleen has fulfilled multiple roles including Senior Analyst for Strategy, Program Leader of the Governance and Justice Program and Senior Evaluation Specialist. Colleen also began the development of IDRC’s approach for foresight and futures thinking and is now putting that experience into practice in IDRC’s Programs Branch. She has three decades of expertise in strategic programming, planning, evaluation and funder relationship management in the areas of human rights, governance, gender equality, women and security and the rule of law. She has published on these issues, with a particular focus on gender justice. Prior to joining IDRC, she worked for more than a decade with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and with UNDP in Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, and New York. She holds an LLM in international human rights and humanitarian law from Essex University (UK) and a graduate degree in international development and economic cooperation from the University of Ottawa.

ImageNeil Ebenezer (PhD) – Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme

Neil is the Director of a consultancy company that has a particular focus on the impact of transport on human health, having worked over the last 30 years across the health and transport sectors. He has developed a portfolio career and is currently the Team Leader of the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT), an £18million programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT undertakes research into the complex issues of sustainable transport development across Africa and South Asia

He has also held various posts within the civil service, including the Head of Science and Innovation at the Department of Transport (DfT)  where he represented the UK on the Transport Programme Committee of Horizon 2020 and led a team at DfT on improving access to research and horizon scanning.

ImageDeepty Jain (PhD) – Assistant Professor, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Dr Jain is an Assistant Professor at Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. She is an architect and planner holding expertise in transport safety, behaviour analysis, and transport planning. Her research explores the intersection between the built environment, transport infrastructure, and travel choices to enable low-carbon and safe mobility in cities. Her work focuses on understanding vulnerable road users (to road-related risks, captivity and accessibility, and extreme weather events) and varying types of vulnerabilities resulting from intersectionality. In her current projects she is investigating the impact of extreme weather events on the transport network and its users. During her Ph.D. she developed methods addressing data gaps for preparing Low-Carbon Mobility Plans for Indian cities.

ImageKeisha Mayuga – Co-lead of Women Mobilize Women

Keisha is the co-lead of Women Mobilize Women and is an urban planner with expertise in sustainable mobility in Asia focused on the intersections between gender, inclusivity, and Just Mobility. She holds an MBA in Sustainable Mobility from TU Berlin and has a background in urban planning and journalism. Previously, she worked with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank where she focused on transport finance and active transport planning. She is part of 2023's Remarkable Feminist Voices in Transport and was awarded as one of the Philippines' Top Outsanding Women in Service in 2022 for her work in Urban Transport.

ImageGirija Borker (PhD) – Research Economist and Gender Program Coordinator, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Girija Borker is a development economist working primarily on gender, violence, and transport in urban areas. A large part of her current research studies the economic consequences of sexual harassment in public spaces and assesses potential solutions' effectiveness on women’s physical and economic mobility such as police patrolling, a reliable reporting system, and access to subsidized public transit. Girija has a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK, an MPhil from Toulouse School of Economics, France, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.

Fifth Session: The Value of Informal Transport in Sub-Saharan African Cities

The Value of Informal Transport in Sub-Saharan Africa

The informal transport industry is complex, heterogeneous and multi-sectoral in nature. But the sector also offers real benefits and competitive value. The scale and reach of informal transport service networks mean that Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cities would simply not function without them. Yet policy interventions to improve operating environments for informal public transport vehicles have been relatively few. In this session,HVT will explore how we can understand and better enable a more efficient, low carbon and safe transport network for the cities of SSA, working proactively with the Informal Public Transport sector. This includes examining the potential for integration of formal and informal public transport services at interchanges. The presentation will also touch on how HVT’s research is contributing to more climate-resilient transport by providing knowledge and capacity to support evidence-based choices.

TheieConnect team will present its work in Lagos, Nigeria. The project aims to deepen the understanding on how Lagos could be set on a greener and better mobility path for the future by providing analytics on passengers’ choices, public and informal transit, and evidence on how to regulate informal transit.

8:00am – 8:05am

Introduction

Joseph Haule, HVT Ambassador and IRF Board Member

8:05am – 8:10am

The current informal transport landscape and the need for research: HVT

Neil Ebenezer (PhD), Team Leader, HVT

8:10am – 8:25am

Understanding paratransit transport in six African cities using Big Data

Jacques Pretorius, Head of Data Production, GoMetro

8:25am – 8:40am

Transitioning to a more efficient, low carbon, affordable and safe transport network for the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa with the integration of the informal transport sector

Tim Durant, Associate Director, SLR Consulting and Joaquín Romero de Tejada, Anthropologist, Observatory of Mobility and Transport of Moçambique, City Research Leader in TRANSITIONS

8:40am – 8:55am

Inclusive interchanges – A case study of a design brief in Lagos

Abdul Muizz Ogbara, Research and Evaluation Specialist, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA)

8:55am – 9:10am

A Lagos case study

Geetika Nagpal (PhD), Research Economist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

9:10am – 9:30am

Q&A

Moderated by Joseph Haule

ImageModerator: Joseph Haule – Transport Economist, HVT Ambassador and IRF Board Member

Mr. Joseph Haule is a Transport Economist with 36 years postgraduate experience in the road sector with emphasis on policy, planning, road sector institutional reform, road management and financing. Currently Joseph is an independent consultant after retiring from the public sector in 2016. Prior to becoming a consultant, Mr. Haule was the first CEO of the Roads Fund Board in Tanzania from 2000 when it was established to 2016. Thereafter, he was appointed to Chair the Governing Board of the Roads Fund. Mr. Haule is currently assisting the High-Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme in dissemination of its research outputs to help policy makers and practitioners make informed decisions in making transport become greener, more accessible, more affordable more inclusive and safer. He is affiliated to reputable international institutions including the International Road Federation (IRF) where he is a member of the Governing Board since 2013 as well as World Roads Association (PIARC) where he was a member of the Executive Committee between 2010 and 2016. In 2017 Mr. Haule was bestowed Honorary Membership of the World Road Association in recognition to His exemplary contribution to the roads sector. Between 2008 and 2016 He was a visiting Speaker in   Road Financing to the Senior Roads Executive Program of the University of Birmingham in UK. Mr. Haule was the Team Leader of the Research for Rural Access Program (ReCAP) between 2019 and 2020 and before that He was the Chairman of its Steering Committee for Africa.

ImageNeil Ebenezer (PhD) – Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme

Neil is the Director of a consultancy company that has a particular focus on the impact of transport on human health, having worked over the last 30 years across the health and transport sectors. He has developed a portfolio career and is currently the Team Leader of the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT), an £18million programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT undertakes research into the complex issues of sustainable transport development across Africa and South Asia

He has also held various posts within the civil service, including the Head of Science and Innovation at the Department of Transport (DfT)  where he represented the UK on the Transport Programme Committee of Horizon 2020 and led a team at DfT on improving access to research and horizon scanning.

ImageGeetika Nagpal (PhD) – Research Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

Geetika Nagpal (PhD) is a Research Economist in the Development Impact (DIME) Group at the World Bank. Her research is at the intersection of urban and development economics, focusing on housing markets and transportation infrastructure. Her work combines new sources of granular data with natural experiments to understand how private actors respond to government regulations and shape cities. She received her PhD in Economics from Brown University and holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford.

ImageJoaquín Romero de Tejada – Anthropologist, Observatory of Mobility and Transport of Moçambique, City Research Leader in TRANSITIONS

Joaquín Romero de Tejada is an anthropologist, social educator, and specialist in active mobility and tradicional public transport, having worked professionally in this field since 2008 in Spain and since 2013 in Mozambique. In this country, he has collaborated with various national and international stakeholders on SUM policies, traditional public transportation, mapping, synergy seeking, and the consolidation of the Urban Mobility sector, digitalization, etc. He is a founding member of the Mozambique Mobility and Transportation Observatory (OMT). Currently, he is part of the PIU of the BRT project within the framework of the Maputo Metropolitan Transport Agency funded by the World Bank.

ImageAbdul Muizz Ogbara Research – Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA)

Muizz is a Research and Evaluation Specialist at the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), contributing significantly to transformative transportation initiatives such as the World Bank-funded Lagos Urban Transport Projects (LUTP), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)-supported Lagos Strategic Transport Master Plan (STMP), and the Lagos Blue and Red Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) projects.

At LAMATA, Muizz leads various research initiatives focused on sustainable urban mobility, including Non-Motorized Transportation, Air Quality Monitoring, Women’s Safety, and Inclusive Interchanges. He also serves as a co-lead for the Annual LAMATA Mobility Conference in Lagos and manages projects end-to-end, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives while driving advancements in sustainable urban transportation

ImageTim Durant – City and Regional Planner, SLR Consulting

Tim Durant is City and Regional planner with twenty years of experience and an Associate Director at SLR, based in Bonn. After working in the UK on a range of spatial planning and major infrastructure assignments, he moved to Germany and became involved in research and demonstration projects focussing on sustainable mobility and logistics, partnering with cities across Europe and Africa. Tim coordinated the HVT TRANSITIONS project, which undertook research on informal public transport services in Accra, Kumasi, Freetown, Cape Town and Maputo, and developed a Routemap setting out how these could be supported to provide low emission, affordable and safe mobility in the future. He is currently coordinating the HVT Inclusive Interchanges project, which involves applying a ‘Design Brief’ appraisal and guidance document to two case study interchanges in Lagos.

ImageJacques Pretorius – Head of Data Production, GoMetro

Jacques Pretorius is a registered Geomatics professional with over 20 years of experience in geospatial solutions and GIS project management experience in geospatial solutions and GIS project management. His expertise encompasses data collection, processing, quality assurance, and analysis to deliver actionable insights in the geospatial environment. Jacques excels at designing, testing, and implementing spatial solutions that meet complex business information and delivery requirements, while prioritising automation and maintaining data integrity.

Currently serving as Geomatics Specialist at GoMetro, Jacques leads projects involving geospatial data integration and analysis, including impactful initiatives such as bus route profiling and capacity planning for urban mobility projects. His proficiency spans advanced GIS workflows, remote sensing, and cartography, backed by hands-on experience with tools such as ArcGIS and QGIS. With a commitment to innovation and operational efficiency, Jacques is dedicated to leveraging cutting-edge geospatial technologies to address challenges and drive sustainable solutions.

Fourth Session: The Transition to Sustainable Transport

The Transition to Sustainable Transport

Accounting for nearly a quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions, the transport sector is critical to achieving the ambitious Paris Agreement. While low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have historically emitted lower transport emissions, their growing economies are increasing their carbon footprint. Transitioning to sustainable transport is complex, requiring balancing economic growth, addressing resource limitations, and ensuring social inclusion.

This session will present HVT’s new research that highlights specific aspects of transport in Africa and South Asia that offer opportunities for increasing climate resilient transport. This includes improving access to climate finance, developing a Transport Decarbonisation Index, building climate resilient roads, and developing active mobility strategies.  

Additionally, as countries invest in greener transport, measuring the impacts of these investments is crucial. The ieConnect for Impact Program will present research on comparing alternative methods for collecting data focused on air pollution and provide a framework for considering measurement in the climate space more broadly.

The webinar will explore how transport can meet the needs of LMICs at the policy level and spotlight the latest research into why climate finance isn’t reaching LMICs at the rate it needs to and how to address this gap.

8:00am – 8:05am Introduction
8:05am – 8:10am

Bridging the Gap: Climate-Resilient Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Neil Ebenezer, Team Leader, HVT

8:10am – 8:25am

Unlocking Climate Finance for Transport Climate Action

Yiqian Zhang, Manager, Climate and Electric Mobility, World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

8:25am – 8:40am

Transport Decarbonisation Index - A Diagnostic Toolkit Supporting Countries Towards Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport

Nikola Medimorec, Director of Data Analysis and Research, SLOCAT

8:40am – 8:55am

Inclusive Transit Oriented Development in Eastern Africa: A Route to Climate-Resilient Transport

Jacob Mason, Senior Director, Global Program, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

8:55am – 9:00am

Reportage

Neil Ebenezer, Team Leader, HVT

9:00am – 9:15am

Measuring Air Pollution in Low- and Middle-Income Cities – Dakar Case Study

Sveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist in the Development Impact Group, World Bank

9:15am – 9:30am Q&A

ImageNeil Ebenezer (PhD) – Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme

Neil is the Director of a consultancy company that has a particular focus on the impact of transport on human health, having worked over the last 30 years across the health and transport sectors. He has developed a portfolio career and is currently the Team Leader of the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT), an £18million programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT undertakes research into the complex issues of sustainable transport development across Africa and South Asia

He has also held various posts within the civil service, including the Head of Science and Innovation at the Department of Transport (DfT)  where he represented the UK on the Transport Programme Committee of Horizon 2020 and led a team at DfT on improving access to research and horizon scanning.

ImageSveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Sveta Milusheva leads the ieConnect program of impact evaluations focused on transport investments and within this program leads the work on urban mobility. Her research interests include infrastructure and information & communication technologies, population mobility, health and gender. In particular, her work focuses on the application of new big data sources, such as mobile phone data and crowdsourced data, to study questions in development and to evaluate the impact of development interventions. She received her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and her BA in Economics and International Studies from Emory University.

ImageYiqian Zhang, Manager, Climate and Electric Mobility, World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

Yiqian is a Climate and Electric Mobility Manager at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. She works to assist governments in meeting their Paris Climate Agreement goals through electrification and transport decarbonization strategies. She coordinates and leads research projects, data analysis and modelling, stakeholder outreach, and on-the-ground support on the topics of electric mobility as well as wider transport-climate issues following the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach. Prior to joining WRI, Yiqian worked as the Sustainable Mobility Senior Officer for ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, a global city-to-city network. She led a portfolio of projects on sustainable urban mobility (e-mobility, active mobility, urban freight) and developed solutions and services for local governments in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Yiqian holds a M.A. in Erasmus Mundus Global Studies from the University of Vienna and the University of Leipzig, and a B.S. in Public Administration from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.  Outside of work, Yiqian is an avid runner who enjoys cycling and combat sports. She lives in Düsseldorf, Germany.

ImageNikola Medimorec, Director of Data Analysis and Research, SLOCAT

Nikola Medimorec is the Director of Data Analysis and Research at SLOCAT, where he leads efforts in gathering and analysing key data on transport, climate change and sustainable development. His efforts lead the design and approaches applied to SLOCAT’s knowledge products, including the SLOCAT Transport, Climate and Sustainability Global Status Report, which provides critical insights on the state of climate action and sustainability in the transport sector. He is also the key focal point from SLOCAT on the assessment work for the GIZ-SLOCAT NDC Transport Tracker, for which he has conducted dozens of studies on Nationally Determined Contributions and long-term low-emission development strategies. Nikola holds a Master's in Urban Geography from Seoul National University and a Bachelor’s in Applied Geography from Trier University. He is currently based in Seoul, South Korea.

ImageJacob Mason, Senior Director, Global Program, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Jacob (he/him/his pronouns) is Senior Director, Global Program at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. He manages data collection, reporting, and evaluation for ITDP globally. He specializes in strategic research that drives the conversation about sustainable transportation and development, assessing new technologies and identifying new, quantifiable ways of meeting program goals. Jacob has been the lead researcher for many of ITDP’s most recognized publications, including the Bike Share Planning Guide, the BRT Standard, and A Global High Shift Cycling Scenario and Three Revolutions in Urban Transport, quantifying the multi-trillion-dollar savings in transportation costs and massive reductions in CO2 emissions possible through more sustainable urban transport. He also oversaw the production of ITDP’s People Near Transit report, which developed and measured an international metric for rapid transit coverage, which has since been adopted by city, national, and international governments. Jacob has been responsible for data collection analysis—and, often, metric development—for ITDP projects worldwide, including a walkability study in five African cities and a BRT project in Nairobi, Kenya. Within the World Bank’s Sustainable Mobility for All program, Jacob co-chairs the Urban Access working group, which is developing sustainable urban transport indicators that are shared across multiple international institutions. Jacob has a master’s in urban planning from McGill University (Montreal) and a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Columbia University.

Third session: Data Collection and Research Methodologies Using Innovative Technology

Data Collection and Research Methodologies Using Innovative Technology

New technologies, big data sources and significant advances in computing power have revolutionized the data available to support more effective transport policies and projects. This session explores the latest approaches and innovations for gathering data, highlighting work from ieConnect and HVT focused on developing innovative and easily accessible, reliable data in low- and middle-income countries where data is often limited. Examples from ieConnect will include the case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, demonstrating how CCTV footage and computer vision can be used to develop road safety indicators to help prioritize interventions and assess their economic benefits; applications of smartcard and mobile phone data to study mobility in Bogota, Colombia; the use of crowdsourced, mobile app, GPS sensor and administrative data in Kenya to evaluate policies and support road safety planning; and the use of different satellite datasets to evaluate the impact of transport corridors. The projects presented from HVT range from the use of computer vision to detect and count transport-related objects in street-level imagery to supporting the Transport Data Commons Initiative (TDCI) - a forum committed to improving access, sharing and analysis of transportation data by establishing an open data platform for transport.

8:00am – 8:05am

Introduction

Elizabeth Jones – Senior Transport Advisor, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office

8:05am – 8:50am

Beyond Traditional Data: Innovative data systems and technologies

Sveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist in the Development Impact Group at the World Bank

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank Group

Nino Pkhikidze – Economist, World Bank Transport Global Knowledge Unit

8:50am – 9:15am

Breaking data barriers: Advancing data access in low- and middle-income countries

Neil Ebenezer (PhD) – Consultant on Transport and Health Issues

9:15am – 9:30am

Q&A

Moderated by Elizabeth Jones

ImageModerator: Elizabeth Jones – Senior Transport Advisor, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office

Mrs. Elizabeth Jones leads the Transport Research portfolio for the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).  She is the Senior Transport Adviser within FCDO and joined the UK Government in 1997. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Jones has more than 25 years’ experience working on international development globally.  She has worked and lived in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Bangladesh and most recently for four years in Fiji.  She has extensive experience working with partner governments, bilaterals, multi-laterals and civil society spanning transport, water supply & sanitation, urban development and anti-corruption.  She has previously held positions on the UK Institute of Civil Engineer’s Transport Journal Panel, Chaired the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility Board, been a founding Board member for Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) and Board member for the University of Birmingham’s Road Management & Engineering MSc.

ImageNeil Ebenezer (PhD) – Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme

Neil is the Director of a consultancy company that has a particular focus on the impact of transport on human health, having worked over the last 30 years across the health and transport sectors. He has developed a portfolio career and is currently the Team Leader of the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT), an £18million programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT undertakes research into the complex issues of sustainable transport development across Africa and South Asia

He has also held various posts within the civil service, including the Head of Science and Innovation at the Department of Transport (DfT)  where he represented the UK on the Transport Programme Committee of Horizon 2020 and led a team at DfT on improving access to research and horizon scanning.

ImageSveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Sveta Milusheva leads the ieConnect program of impact evaluations focused on transport investments and within this program leads the work on urban mobility. Her research interests include infrastructure and information & communication technologies, population mobility, health and gender. In particular, her work focuses on the application of new big data sources, such as mobile phone data and crowdsourced data, to study questions in development and to evaluate the impact of development interventions. She received her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and her BA in Economics and International Studies from Emory University.

ImageRobert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Robert Marty is a Data Scientist in the Development Impact (DIME) Group at the World Bank where his work focuses on impact evaluations of transport corridors and road safety. In particular, his work focuses on leveraging innovative data sources for impact evaluations, such as satellite imagery, crowdsourced data and private sector data sources. Prior to joining the World Bank he worked at the AidData Center for Development Policy. He holds an MS in Computational Operations Research and a Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary.

ImageNino Pkhikidze (PhD) – Economist, World Bank Transport Global Knowledge Unit

Nino Pkhikidze is an Economist at the World Bank Transport Global Knowledge Unit. Currently she is working on projects related to economic geography, impact evaluation of transport projects on health, education and poverty, and transport decarbonization and climate policies. Prior to joining the World Bank, she held research positions at the Center for Development Research at University of Bonn in Germany, at the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands, and GeoWel Research in Georgia. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany.

First session - Data and Knowledge to Support Innovations, Resilience, and Inclusivity in Transport

Second Session: Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems

Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems

Professor Jim Hall will set out principles for climate risk analysis of transport networks, which identifies critical hotspots of exposure to climate risks. He will demonstrate how this information can be used to prioritize resilience interventions. His talk will be based on a large-scale analysis of the transport networks in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The analysis is embedded in an open access “Decision Support Systems for Resilient Strategic Transport Networks in Low Income Countries”, developed as part of the FCDO funded High Volume Transport Programme. The decision support system is built around an interactive web platform and aims to support investment decisions and options selection for long-distance strategic land transport networks exposed to climate risks. Pamela Acheng will explain recent developments in the analysis, including road deterioration and landslides.

The World Bank’s ieConnect team will also present an analysis of the impacts and recovery from the devastating 2022 floods in Pakistan using big data sources such as mobility data and satellite imagery. The team will also present evidence from Mozambique demonstrating the importance of resilient transport systems.

8:00am – 8:05am  

Introduction

Dr. Philip Paige-green (Pr. Sci. Nat.) – Director and Specialist Consultant in Geomaterials and Roads, Paige-Green Consulting

8:05am – 8:45am  

Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems 

Jim Hall, FREng - Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford 

Pamela Opio Acheng – DPhil Candidate, University of Oxford

8:45am – 9:15am  

Case studies: Pakistan and Mozambique 

Robert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank Group 

9:15am – 9:30am 

Q&A 

Moderated by Dr. Philip Paige-green 

ImageDr. Philip Paige-green (Pr. Sci. Nat.) – Director and Specialist Consultant in Geomaterials and Roads, Paige-Green Consulting

Phil graduated with a BSc (Hons) and MSc from the University of Natal and a PhD from the University of Pretoria, 1989, all in Engineering Geology. He worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa (and for 2 years in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman), for 37 years with projects in 27 countries. He has been mainly involved in research and implementation of materials aspects related to roads, road construction, transportation geotechnics and climate resilience of the transportation network. He retired in 2013 and is now a specialist consultant in geomaterials and roads with Paige-Green Consulting (Pty) Ltd and Extraordinary Professor in the faculty of Civil Engineering at the Tshwane University of Technology. He has served on the boards of various international journals for many years and is a registered Professional Natural Scientist, member of various professional societies and a Fellow of the SAIEG and SAICE and Life Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa GSSA).

ImageJim Hall FREng – Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford

Before joining the University of Oxford, Prof Hall held academic positions in the Newcastle University and the University of Bristol. He is internationally recognised for his research on risk analysis and decision making under uncertainty for water resource systems, flood and coastal risk management, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change. Professor Hall is a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, is a Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission and is Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Prof Hall led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the UK's first National Infrastructure Assessment and for analysis of the resilience of energy, transport, digital and water networks in Great Britain. He conceived of, and now chairs, the UK's Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI). His systems analysis methods have been applied worldwide, including in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Curacao, Jamaica, Kenya, St Lucia, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam, and globally. He has published more than 160 articles in peer reviewed journals, and has published four books, including, The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.

ImagePamela Opio Acheng – DPhil Candidate, University of Oxford

Pamela's current research focuses on the development of a decision tool for the resilience of transport networks to climate change. Her research shall use remote sensing satellite data to investigate the vulnerability of selected transport networks in Eastern Africa and use the results of this analysis to conduct a transport disruption and economic trade flow model. The outcomes of her work will aid in the development of a theoretical framework for a decision tool for climate-resilient transport networks.

Before joining Oxford in 2022, Pamela was an Assistant Lecturer at the College of Engineering, Design, Art, and Technology at Makerere University. Pamela has been the coordinator for e-learning for the School of Built Environment at Makerere University and an Assistant Research Coordinator for Undergraduate Research. She has also worked with the Ministry of Works and Transport, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative where she played important roles in the design, supervision, implementation, and monitoring of infrastructure projects.

ImageRobert Marty – Data Scientist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Robert Marty is a Data Scientist in the Development Impact (DIME) Group at the World Bank where his work focuses on impact evaluations of transport corridors and road safety. In particular, his work focuses on leveraging innovative data sources for impact evaluations, such as satellite imagery, crowdsourced data and private sector data sources. Prior to joining the World Bank he worked at the AidData Center for Development Policy. He holds an MS in Computational Operations Research and a Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary.

First session - Data and Knowledge to Support Innovations, Resilience, and Inclusivity in Transport

Introduction to the series

The first webinar will introduce the series with selected snapshots highlighting what to expect from the monthly deep dive webinars:

  1. Resilient transport infrastructure systems - Presented by Jim Hall, FREng - Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford
  2. Data collection and research methodologies using innovative technology - Presented by Sveta Milusheva, PhD - Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank
  3. Informal transport in the global south - Presented by Neil Ebenezer, PhD - Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme
  4. Impact of climate change on Transport - Presented by Neil Ebenezer, PhD and Sveta Milusheva, PhD
  5. Gender, inclusion and sustainable transport - Presented by Girija Borker, PhD - Research Economist, Development Impact, World Bank

Series Opening
8:00am – 8:20am About the series Elizabeth Jones - Senior Transport Advisor, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
Introduction to ieConnect for Impact Program Sveta Milusheva, PhD - Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank
Introduction to High Volume Transport Programme Neil Ebenezer, PhD - Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme
Overview of the Topics Covered in the Future Webinars
8:20am – 8:30am Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems Jim Hall, FREng - Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford
8:30am – 9:40am Data Collection and Research Methodologies Using Innovative Technology Sveta Milusheva, PhD - Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank
8:40am – 8:50am Informal Transport in the Global South Neil Ebenezer, PhD - Consultant on Transport and Health Issues
8:50am – 9:00am Gender, Inclusion and Sustainable Transport Girija Borker, PhD - Research Economist, Development Impact, World Bank
Q&A
9:00am – 9:25am Questions about the series Presenters and moderator
Closing Remarks
9:25am – 9:30am Closing remarks Elizabeth Jones - Senior Transport Advisor, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office

ImageModerator: Elizabeth Jones – Senior Transport Advisor, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office

Mrs. Elizabeth Jones leads the Transport Research portfolio for the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).  She is the Senior Transport Adviser within FCDO and joined the UK Government in 1997. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Jones has more than 25 years’ experience working on international development globally.  She has worked and lived in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Bangladesh and most recently for four years in Fiji.  She has extensive experience working with partner governments, bilaterals, multi-laterals and civil society spanning transport, water supply & sanitation, urban development and anti-corruption.  She has previously held positions on the UK Institute of Civil Engineer’s Transport Journal Panel, Chaired the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility Board, been a founding Board member for Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) and Board member for the University of Birmingham’s Road Management & Engineering MSc.

ImageNeil Ebenezer (PhD) – Team Leader, High Volume Transport (HVT) Applied Research Programme

Neil is the Director of a consultancy company that has a particular focus on the impact of transport on human health, having worked over the last 30 years across the health and transport sectors. He has developed a portfolio career and is currently the Team Leader of the High-Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT), an £18million programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). HVT undertakes research into the complex issues of sustainable transport development across Africa and South Asia

He has also held various posts within the civil service, including the Head of Science and Innovation at the Department of Transport (DfT)  where he represented the UK on the Transport Programme Committee of Horizon 2020 and led a team at DfT on improving access to research and horizon scanning.

ImageJim Hall FREng – Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford.

Before joining the University of Oxford, Prof Hall held academic positions in the Newcastle University and the University of Bristol. He is internationally recognised for his research on risk analysis and decision making under uncertainty for water resource systems, flood and coastal risk management, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change. Professor Hall is a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, is a Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission and is Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Prof Hall led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the UK's first National Infrastructure Assessment and for analysis of the resilience of energy, transport, digital and water networks in Great Britain. He conceived of, and now chairs, the UK's Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI). His systems analysis methods have been applied worldwide, including in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Curacao, Jamaica, Kenya, St Lucia, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam, and globally. He has published more than 160 articles in peer reviewed journals, and has published four books, including, The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016.

ImageGirija Borker (PhD) – Research Economist and Gender Program Coordinator, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Girija Borker is a development economist working primarily on gender, violence, and transport in urban areas. A large part of her current research studies the economic consequences of sexual harassment in public spaces and assesses potential solutions' effectiveness on women’s physical and economic mobility such as police patrolling, a reliable reporting system, and access to subsidized public transit. Girija has a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK, an MPhil from Toulouse School of Economics, France, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.

ImageSveta Milusheva (PhD) – Senior Economist, Development Impact Group, World Bank

Sveta Milusheva leads the ieConnect program of impact evaluations focused on transport investments and within this program leads the work on urban mobility. Her research interests include infrastructure and information & communication technologies, population mobility, health and gender. In particular, her work focuses on the application of new big data sources, such as mobile phone data and crowdsourced data, to study questions in development and to evaluate the impact of development interventions. She received her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and her BA in Economics and International Studies from Emory University.