A Moving Issue: Children and young people’s transport and mobility constraints in Africa

Abstract

Children and young people are rarely at the forefront of transport studies, despite the fact that their ability to access health and educational facilities is crucial to the achievement of many of the Millennium Development Goals. To address this knowledge gap a pioneering collaborative research project led by the University of Durham has gathered evidence of the specific mobility constraints experienced by girl and boy children as they attempt to access the facilities and services that are important to their lives. This innovative research was conducted across three Sub-Saharan countries: Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. The project explored the travel challenges faced by girl and boy children through their own eyes alongside traditional adult-led research methods. It looked at their access to health, education and other services, at the lack of direct information on how mobility constraints impact on children's current and future livelihood opportunities, and at the lack of available guidelines on how to tackle them. This issue of Forum News highlights the key findings of the project, shares relevant resources and ask where do we go from here?

Citation

IFRTD: International Forum for Rural Transport and Development, Forum News, Volume 15, issue 1, 6 pp.

A Moving Issue: Children and young people’s transport and mobility constraints in Africa

Published 1 January 2010