SLOCAT-VREF Young Leaders
in
Sustainable Transport
The SLOCAT Partnership and the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) launched in May 2019 the Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport programme. The programme builds bridges between the transport community and young people and explores new perspectives by creating an interface between knowledge and policy. It will also raise the capacity of young people and provide them new skills in evidence-based policy analysis for sustainable transport.
Young people are recognised as the torchbearers of sustainable development and the vanguards in the struggle against climate change. By working directly with young leaders, the transport community will empower the generation who can help foster far-reaching and unprecedented change and build long-lasting bridges with other constituencies.
The SLOCAT-VREF Young Leaders in the third round are:
Bianca Ryseck
Bianca Ryseck is a Transport Studies PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town where she is investigating the role of information technologies in enabling access to the hybrid public transport system in Cape Town. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics in City Design and Social Science where her passion for contextualised-design methodologies for urban planning challenges in emerging cities was born.
She is passionate about the relationship between information technologies, equitable access to mobility, and incentives for behavioural change.
Cabrel Tokam
Cabrel Tokam is a Civil Engineer, pursuing a PhD in Structural and Pavement Engineering at The Pan African University in Nairobi, Kenya. His experiences (mainly acquired from diverse private companies such as STUDI International, and International Organisation such as The World Bank Group – Infrastructure Practice Group) cut across academic research, urban planning, transportation engineering and international development. During his experience, he collaborated effectively with diverse teams adding value to the projects/programmes he worked on (BRT-Dakar, Senegal and Cameroon Transport Sector Support Programme).
He is highly interested about sustainable mobility, climate mitigation and youth leadership. He is now supporting the UN Habitat ROA team as a Civil Engineer Intern in the Global Solutions Division.
Fatoumata Diallo
Fatoumata Diallo is a PhD candidate in comparative political sociology at the Center for International Studies of SciencesPo Paris. Her work investigates the implementation of urban transport projects and the circulation of urban policy models around the world.
Her research is located at the intersection between public policy analysis and urban studies and aims at deepening our understanding of urban governance structures using qualitative methods. She has notably analysed transport reforms in Cape Town, South Africa, Lagos, Nigeria and Greater Paris, France.
Richard Unuigboje
Richard Unuigboje is currently a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales in Australia. His focus area is developing a new classification model for cyclist typology. Previously, he was an Assistant Lecturer, Registered Town Planner, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Lagos. His research interests focus on active travel, non-motorised transport, urban resilience, and waste to wealth practices for the urban poor. He was part of the University of Lagos team that prepared the Lagos Resilience Strategy and the Ajegunle-Ikorodu Community Resilience Action Plan.
Robert Ambunda
Robert is a researcher and academic in the departments of Civil Engineering at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and University of Namibia (Namibia). His areas of research interest encompass transport modelling, transportation planning and design, Intelligent Transport Systems and MAAS. He has worked with local institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa on data driven road safety and public transport policy and performance targets development.
Robert is passionate about sustainable forms of public transport towards creating greener, safer and less polluted productive cities. He holds a Masters (MEng) and PhD in Civil Engineering from Stellenbosch University.
Activities
Engagement at high-level events, building bridges with other communities
- Fatoumata Diallo spoke at the session “Supporting an Integrated Approach to Safe and Sustainable Transport for Women and Girls” at the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in June 2022.
- Through SLOCAT, Robert Ambunda was a speaker at the WCTRS-Y session for young transport academics’ career development in July 2022.
- Cabrel Tokam participated at the 2022 International Road Federation’s Young Professionals Summit in September 2022.
- Robert Ambunda became the third African scholar awarded in the history of the Lee Schipper Scholarship for his research on ‘Reimagining non-motorised transport policies in secondary urban African towns’.
Knowledge-driven policy advocacy
- Fireside chat on Sustainable Transport Challenges and Opportunities in African Cities in January 2022. It was summarised in a Morning Commute Blog by the SLOCAT Secretariat with inputs from the Young Leaders titled Sustainable transport in African cities (March 2022).
- The Young Leaders were invited to conduct the Controversy Debate on ” Formal Public Transport: either or both?” at the GIZ Transport and Climate Change Week in May 2022.
- Sharing of policy measures and case studies for the SLOCAT Transport and Climate Change Global Status Report 3rd Edition. Robert Ambunda and Cabrel Tokam authored sections of the report (e.g. the Africa Regional Overview).
- Mentoring session was with Mr. Michael Replogle, Founder and Director of Emeritus and Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and Former Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Policy of New York City in August 2022.
- Joint blog for the African Voices towards COP27 series on ‘Overcoming Arrested Mobility for Persons with Disabilities Across Africa’ in October 2022.
Previous generations
See the young leaders of the previous rounds here: