Africa

African cities are growing faster than in any region in the world. By 2050, approximately 60 percent of the population in Africa is expected to reside in cities. Yet, improvements to city services, infrastructure, and transit are not keeping pace with this growth. The majority of transportation-related investments are road construction, even though the vast majority of Africans do not own cars. Instead, people must rely on inconsistent, informal, and often dangerous modes of public transport.

ITDP first began working in Africa in the late 1980s, bringing bicycles to midwives and women farmers in Mozambique to improve their mobility and productivity. In 1998, ITDP launched Afribike, a program in South Africa that distributes bikes to low-income communities and healthcare workers. This paved the way for the Access Africa program, which has provided thousands of people with opportunities for work, education, and enhanced access to essential services, including health clinics.

Over the years, ITDP Africa has collaborated with cities to design and implement high-quality bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, bike networks, and pedestrian projects. These include: the Dar es Salaam BRT, or DART, which opened as the first world-class BRT in East Africa in 2016; Johannesburg’s silver-standard Rea Vaya BRT; and Cape Town’s bronze-standard MyCiTi BRT. Today, ITDP operates throughout Africa from its central regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as additional offices in Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. Our larger ongoing projects include: planning, improving, and/or expanding the BRT systems in Cairo, Dar es Salaam, Kigali, Kampala, Addis Ababa, and Nairobi, as well as the Addis Ababa NMT.