Africa Streets Forum

– – – > Go to Africa Streets Forum here

The present version of the Africa Streets Forum is placed here in pilot form in the hope of eventually being developed into a tool capable of serving as a useful shared library and information base on the topic of transport developments, problems and opportunities of Africans in their day-to-day lives. The goal is to jointly design and then to offer a convenient shared archive of postings and comments on our chosen topic, along with free, public, flexible discussion space for those who feel that our transport systems need to be, and can be made to be, more sustainable and more just — and who wish to freely exchange ideas and information about it.

The key to unlocking the Africa Streets challenge can be summed up in a single phrase: Fair transport for women and children. What works well about this, is that when women and children are fairly served everybody ends up being better off. This can and should be our central mission in partnership with the GATNET program, its pioneering members, and its activities and working tools.

There is a vernacular expansion in English: “use it or lose it”; in French we say that the goal has to be to “occupier le terrain”. And that is our goal here. As part of this our challenge now is to increase the public exposure and outreach of these discussions and questions, problems and attempted responses, on the grounds that until now these voices of sustainable transport and social justice in Africa have not been sufficiently heard. To do this we have to raise our voices. And we will.