Second Round of Young Leaders – 2020
In the second round of Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport programme in 2020 the following four participants have been engaged:
Agnivesh Pani
Agnivesh is a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Memphis, USA. He is passionate about applied research on sustainable urban freight movements, with core interest towards data-driven analytics and modelling of freight transportation systems. His ongoing research focuses on solving the negative externalities of last-mile delivery using autonomous delivery robots.
One of his recent papers got the Best Paper Award of TRB Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics (AT015) committee in 2020. Prior to his current position, Agnivesh completed the PhD program in the Department of Civil Engineering at BITS Pilani, India.
Cyprine Odada
Cyprine is an urban planner with a master’s degree in Project Planning from the University of Nairobi. Her passion for sustainable mobility, specifically in walking and cycling, stemmed from the fatigue she experienced wasting valuable time in traffic jams. Cyprine has contributed towards the development of Sustainable Mobility Plans for different cities in Africa.
One of her responsibilities today is to develop a city-wide cycling network in Nairobi. She is also an avid cyclist and the organizer of Critical Mass Nairobi, which is one of the largest cycling groups in Africa. Being a mother, she dreams of a city where her kids will be able to use public roads without fear or favor.
Érika Martins Silva Ramos
Érika is a PhD candidate at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden on environmental psychology with focus on transportation. She is a psychologist with a masters in consumer behavior from the University of Brasília, Brazil. Her current work investigates travel behavior related to new travel systems, emerging technologies and innovative services in European countries, such as car sharing, autonomous vehicles and e-services.
Her research is focused on the effects of these new services on people’s behavior, attitudes and on the normative aspects of travel mode choice. She has worked with the topic of sustainability and transportation in partnership with local organizations as well as at European level.
Seble Samuel
Seble Samuel is an Ethiopian-Canadian geographer and climate justice advocate. She is a co-founder and organizer of Menged Le Sew, Ethiopia’s open streets movement, and is one of TUMI’s Remarkable Women in Transport 2020. Her experience spans East Africa, Latin America and Canada, working with international institutions and civil society organizations on climate justice, multimedia communications and socio-ecological resilience.
Based in Addis Abeba, she currently works for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, and as part of the Global Shapers Addis Ababa Hub, she co-leads a campaign to ban single-use plastics across Ethiopia.
Seble holds a BA in Geography and Anthropology from McGill University and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford.
Activities by the SLOCAT-VREF Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport
Engagement at high-level events, building bridges with other communities
- The Young Leaders were invited to VREF’s Urban Research Forum, the Mobilize Summit by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), and REN21’s Academy Young Professionals Day.
- Seble Samuel participated as a panelist in the high-level closing session of En Route to COP26, a multi-stakeholder high-level event to drive action for zero-emission transport.
- The SLOCAT Secretariat explored throughout 2020 new opportunities to enable synergies with the young professionals programmes of SLOCAT partners. For example, joint opportunities with International Road Federation’s Young Professionals Leadership Group have been discussed.
Knowledge-driven policy advocacy
- Webinar Let’s Talk Transport Fireside Chat: Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport Take on COVID-19 – Exchange on the impact of the pandemic in their respective cities and countries, and the kind of countermeasures and opportunities to advance sustainable, low carbon and resilient mobility.
- Exchange between the Young Leaders and the SLOCAT Secretariat team ‘Fresh Ideas, New Leadership: A conversation across the timeline of transport transformation’, discussing the bigger context of work on sustainable mobility.
- Policy briefs based on COVID-19-era good practices focusing on active mobility, jobs, sustainable freight and travel behaviour impacts (released here,) for the Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP).
- Seble Samuel co-wrote the SLOCAT Morning Commute Blog post ‘How can Ethiopian cities bounce back from COVID-19 with active mobility at the forefront?’, feeding valuable insights on how African cities can better recover from the pandemic.
- Insights and figures to the SLOCAT Transport and Climate Change Global Status Report – 2nd edition. Erika Martins Silva Ramos authored a focus feature on the impact of COVID-19 on travel behaviour; Agnivesh Pani co-authored the urban passenger and freight transport policy landscape section; and Seble Samuel created a global database on open street events in cities featured in the section on sustainable mobility planning and transport demand management.
- Contribution to LEDS-GP policy briefs on pandemic recovery for active mobility, jobs, sustainable freight and travel behavior impacts.
- Moving Forward Series: Opening streets for people by Seble Samuel
- Moving Forward Series: Job Creation Through Green Transport by Cyprine Odada
- Moving Forward Series: Sustainable Freight Transport in the Aftermath of the Pandemic by Agnivesh Pani
- Moving Forward Series: Behavioral change and the pandemic by Érika Martins Silva Ramos