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.
Participants
The SLOCAT-VREF Young Leaders Sustainable Transport has the following participants in the fifth round:
Ayodeji Stephen Adekanbi
Ayodeji Stephen is a PhD researcher at Dublin City University in Ireland, focusing on hydrogen fuel applications and electrification in transport systems decarbonisation.
Ayodeji holds an MSc in Renewable Energy Economics from the University of Ibadan, and MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, USA, and a BSc in Physics from the University of Ilorin. His research interests lie in sustainable mobility solutions, clean energy transitions and infrastructure development across Africa. He has experience working with several development organisations and policy institutions on issues related to energy access, transport policy and climate action.
Outside academia, Ayodeji enjoys curating thought-leadership content, attending energy forums as well as engaging young professionals on climate and mobility issues.
Benter Atieno Agutu
Benter is an urban mobility trainee at the Urban Mobility Unit at UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, supported by the Flanders Trainee Programme.
She earned her Master’s in Transportation Sciences with distinction from Hasselt University in Belgium through a fully funded VLIR-UOS Scholarship. She is a specialist in road safety in low- and middle-income countries and holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Nairobi. She has worked with local and national government institutions in her native Kenya and previously interned at the Global Road Safety Facility at the World Bank. She is the initiator of the Transport Working Group of the Children and Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC (YOUNGO) and a Local Actions grant recipient from the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety.
Her research interests are directed toward the safety of vulnerable road users, comparative analyses of active mobility investment policies, and the application of mapping technologies like Google Street View and Open Street Map to study the availability and safety of walking and cycling infrastructure in urban areas.
Olanike Christiana Babalola
Olanike is a first-class Master’s Graduate in Transport and Logistics, a PhD researcher in Sustainable Urbanization within the Urban Mobility Group at the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD), University of Lagos, and recipient of the 2024 Lee Schippers Memorial Scholarship Award (Africa Scholar), based in Lagos (Nigeria).
Her research focus on, “Driving Smart Freight Innovation For Sustainable And Resilient Urban Freight Mobility In Lagos,” combining a comparative policy review of developing countries with global best-practice integration to simulate multimodal freight policies and technologies for Lagos. She evaluates the medium- and long-term impacts of emerging freight transport innovations on urban logistics efficiency and resilience. Central to her work is driving the institutionalisation of “Smart Freight” systems and advancing data-driven, sustainable freight strategies tailored to Lagos’s unique context. By uniting policy analysis, technology assessment, and stakeholder collaboration, I am researching to develop evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, industry leaders, academics, investors, and both governmental and non-governmental organizations. As a Transport Analyst, she develops various transport scenarios for different traffic data collected using dedicated transport simulation software and conducts Macro-level and Micro-level Transportation Field Surveys, Management and Planning.
Steffel Ludivin Feudjio Tezong
Steffel is a Civil Engineer and PhD Candidate in Infrastructure and Transport at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
He currently supports the Research Centre for Transport and Logistics at Sapienza University and the World Bank/AfDB Project Implementation Unit within Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Works in planning, preparing, and supervising transport-related projects. His experience within private companies, local government and research centres spans transport planning, policy, research and international development across Europe and Africa, collaborating with diverse teams on programmes and projects (e.g. Cameroon Transport Sector Development Program and Multimodal Transport Project).
He also engages with cross-cutting issues including health, education, gender, inequality and climate change, collaborating within think tanks to develop evidence-based research, policies and projects that advance SDGs through sustainable transport.
Mohammed Musah
Mohammed is an early career urban mobility consultant and urban researcher from Ghana. He is an aspiring PhD researcher looking to conduct a critical study of Transit Oriented Development as a strategy for sustainable urban mobility in African cities.
He holds a Master of Urban Studies and an MSc in Urban Planning and Sustainability from University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Tours, respectively. He has experience in urban research traversing sustainable development, land use planning and metropolitan governance. He recently completed a 2-year tenure as Project Facilitator and Consultant with Transitec Consulting Engineers under the Ghana Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (GUMAP), which aimed to improve urban mobility and accessibility in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.
With research interests in urban mobility policy, land use – transport nexus and urban climate adaption, Mohammed is motivated to contribute to discourses on integrating urban theory and practice to make our cities and communities greener, resilient and inclusive.