This report offers a transnational view of the urban mobility and accessibility context in Africa and focuses on the conditions necessary for implementing urban mobility policies based on good practices and lessons learned globally and in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal.

In many Sub-Saharan African countries, the efficiency of the road maintenance system is not, or is no longer adequate to preserve the network, and provide users with a durable, appropriate level of service in relation to the investments made. Road projects are all too frequently condemned to inadequate or non-existent maintenance, which means that they are reduced to nothing long before the corresponding anticipated economic return has been generated.

During the first half of 2003, three country case studies were carried out in Rwanda, Guinea-Conakry and Tanzania as part of the preparations for the 2003 SSATP Annual Meeting. These studies assess the linkages between national transport and poverty reduction policies and strategies, as well as the processes and institutional arrangements for policy dialogue and decision-making. They also examine how SSATP functions at the national level might be shaped in the future.

The poverty reduction-transport review process (PRTSR) is part of efforts by SSATP and its national and regional partners in Sub-Saharan Africa to optimize the contribution of the transport sector to poverty reduction. The purpose of the review process is the creation of a common understanding by a broad range of influential people from the public sector, private sector and civil society in a country of how national policies and strategies should be improved, and implementation of a plan of action to make this happen. 

This study, conducted by the SITRASS network on behalf of the World Bank, is aimed at assessing in detail the conditions applicable to mobility and access to urban services by the poor populations of Conakry, so as to provide background for the identification of targeted programs of action. The study is based on fieldwork conducted in the fall of 2003, with a similar study being carried out simultaneously in Douala: personal interviews and household surveys on daily mobility, focused on the poorest individuals and households.