CODATU’s participation in the Greater Abidjan Urban Mobility Days (JMUR) organised by AMUGA

[In May 2021, CODATU signed a 2-year technical cooperation agreement with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Greater Abidjan Urban Mobility Authority (AMUGA) to support AMUGA in establishing its governance and coordinating transport and mobility projects in Greater Abidjan].

One month after the Sustainable Mobility and Climate Week held in Dakar from 4 to 7 October 2022, CODATU was invited to take part in the first edition of the Abidjan Urban Mobility Days – JMUR, from 9 to 11 November, inaugurated under the theme ‘Professionalisation of paratransit: challenges and opportunities for sustainable mobility in African cities’.

The three-day programme, described by AMUGA Managing Director Romain Kouakou as a ‘framework for consultation and synergy of action between players in the transport sector’, included panels and workshops focusing on the financing of urban mobility, the modernisation of the mobility system and the integration of paratransit.

AMUGA has been a privileged partner for more than a year, thanks to ongoing technical cooperation, and the CODATU team led several of the working sessions.

Thus, Jean-Jacques Helluin, CODATU’s General Delegate, chaired the first day’s panel on ‘Contracted transport: the role of AOMUs in ensuring more efficient and effective services’, and chaired the second day’s workshop on ‘Financing and renewing the fleet of paratransit vehicles’.

Raymond Deschamps, Treasurer of CODATU, took part in the first panel to talk about contractualisation with public transport operators and the importance of the AOM preparing the Public Service Delegation.

Senior expert Olivier Crouzier, who is involved in the technical cooperation project with AMUGA, chaired the session on ‘Physical integration and interoperability of conventional and small-scale sectors’, which was attended by representatives of engineering firms working on interoperability studies in Abidjan, including Nodalis, Setec and Transitec.

CODATU volunteer Xavier Godard was also invited to speak as an expert on paratransit, and brought the second day to a close by chairing the debriefing session on the various workshops.

As in France, the Abidjan Urban Mobility Days also welcomed international speakers from South Africa, Togo and Senegal, represented in particular by CETUD, the Mobility Organising Authority for the city of Dakar.

The Days were also an opportunity for CODATU to meet other key players in mobility in Abidjan, such as associations of artisanal transporters and the Union des Villes et des Communes de Côte d’Ivoire, thereby broadening its understanding of the ecosystem and governance of mobility outside the economic capital.

Finally, a site visit was organised on Friday afternoon, during which the teams from the various delegations present at JMUR were able to discover the recent development of minute stops, intersections and interchanges coordinated by AMUGA in the commune of Yopougon, as well as the progress of work on the corridor of the future east-west BRT, from the future station of Yopougon-Selmer, to the work on the 4th bridge linking Attécoubé to Adjamé on the bank of the commune of Plateau.

At the end of these Days, a ‘State – Donors’ Declaration inspired by the Dakar Declaration presented at the SMDC and drafted by AMUGA was read out at the JMUR closing session. The aim of the Declaration is to reaffirm AMUGA’s mission and mandate, and the need for a strong commitment from the Ivorian government to provide sustainable funding for mobility and urban transport in Greater Abidjan.