OUR SHARED VISION is to protect and enable people who walk and cycle in Africa. We strive to make walking and cycling more accessible, ensuring a comfortable experience for all ages, genders, and abilities. We recognize the crucial role of active mobility in building just, resilient and inclusive communities and ensuring a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
The Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility (PAAPAM) is a comprehensive framework aimed at transforming mobility across Africa by prioritising the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorized transport users. It was co-developed through extensive stakeholder engagement and is designed to support regional and sub-regional bodies, national and local governments and other stakeholders) in prioritizing and investing in the needs of the one billion people who walk and cycle in Africa.
“The PAAPAM development process has involved direct engagement with over 1000 stakeholders across Africa including development agencies, academia NGOs and civil society.”
PAAPAM recognises how important it is to invest in walking and cycling and other non-motorized transport modes for the environment, air quality, health, road safety, and social equity, while ensuring no one is left behind in the mobility transition. By embedding PAAPAM’s multi-sectoral goals and actions into existing and new policies frameworks, and planning documents, African countries can address key challenges including road fatalities and injuries, pollution, climate change, congestion, etc. while at the same time designing and building more inclusive, vibrant, and equitable communities.
Where does PAAPAM come from?
In the lead-up to COP27 in Egypt, stakeholders gathered in Kigali for the “Africa Regional Forum for Action – Inclusive and Active Mobility in a Changing Climate”. The three-day meeting included a range of sessions focusing on different topics, including data, financing, inclusive mobility, rural access, transit-orientated design, and road safety. Although participants had come from across the continent, it was abundantly clear that they all had one thing in common: walking and cycling was a main mode of transport for most people in their countries, but it was not a main policy, infrastructure, or investment priority.
The Kigali Forum was the starting point for a series of consultations on the action plan. Bilateral meetings with other development partners, NGOs and donors, several consultation sessions were subsequently set-up to capture the shared priorities across the region. In Ghana, transport and city authorities were tasked with identifying actions for cycling; in Ethiopia representatives from East African ministries were invited to provide inputs into financing mechanisms; and at the Walk21 Conference in Rwanda in 2023, hundreds of delegates were given space to share their reflections on the plan’s development.
In 2024, dedicated sub-regional consultation sessions took place both virtually and in person, to understand whether the plan was being developed in the right direction. Today we have the first edition of PAAPAM. It has involved direct consultation with over 1300 individuals and hundreds of civil societies, NGOs, academics, and development partners.
Action Areas, Goals, Indicators and Partnerships for Action.
PAAPAM has three main action areas, 5 goals and several indicators. Government ownership of the Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility (PAAPAM) is vital to ensuring its successful implementation, as they play a key role in shaping policies and allocating resources. However, PAAPAM is a plan for all people, not just governments. Communities, civil society, businesses, and individuals can also take ownership of the active mobility agenda. By working together, all stakeholders can ensure that walking and cycling becomes safer, more accessible, and more integrated into everyday life across Africa.
Follow this link to view the PAAPAM Action Areas, Goals Indicators and Partnerships for Action.
