Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport

The SLOCAT Partnership and the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) have 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.

Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport 2020

Four participants were selected for this year’s programme:

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.

See the young leaders of 2019, their research products and their activities here.

2020 Activities

Let’s Talk Transport Fireside Chat: Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport Take on COVID-19.
Fresh Ideas, New Leadership: A conversation across the timeline of transport transformation – An informative resource for youth in their early careers.
Contribution to LEDS-GP policy briefs on pandemic recovery for active mobility, jobs, sustainable freight and travel behavior impacts.
Contribution of new insights, content and figures to SLOCAT’s Transport and Climate Change Global Status Report (TCC-GSR) 2020.
Participation in VREF’s Urban Research Forum, the Mobilize Virtual Summit (October) and REN21’s Academy Young Professionals Day (November).
Seble Samuel was a panelist at the closing session of En Route to COP26 and Zahira Abounoas was a speaker at the ‘Shah Alam City Council Roadmap in Achieving SDGs 11’ event at the 10th World Urban Forum.
Exploring opportunities for joint activities with the International Road Federation’s Young Professionals Leadership Group.

COVID-19 and Transport: An exchange between two generations of Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport

In this recorded fireside chat the participants of the Young Leaders in Sustainable Transport programme were invite to an exchange on COVID-19 and sustainable transport. The participants reflect the impact of the pandemic in their respective cities and countries and what kind of countermeasures and opportunities it offers to advance sustainable, low carbon, resilient mobility.

Fresh Ideas, New Leadership: A conversation across the timeline of transport transformation

Watch this informative conversation between the Young Leaders and Mark Major as they tackle some key issues in the realm of sustainable, low carbon transport.