IN FOCUS : Promoting active transportation and climate action in african cities

Published on September 9, 2026

Africa
Cameroon
Madagascar
Ethiopia
Senegal
Ivory Coast
Climate change
Energy transition and resilient cities

To address the growing challenges related to mobility, air pollution and climate vulnerability in African cities, the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), alongside the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the French Development Agency (AFD), has launched a capitalisation initiative. This study is based on an analysis of six Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs)1 developed as part of the MobiliseYourCity partnership in Dakar (Senegal), Douala and Yaoundé (Cameroon), Dire Dawa (Ethiopia), Bouaké (Ivory Coast), and Antananarivo (Madagascar).

The aim of this report is to extract and disseminate key lessons learnt by identifying best practices, levers for action and success factors. It therefore provides operational and replicable recommendations for local authorities, donors and practitioners.

The methodology is based on a qualitative and comparative analysis of planning documents, complemented by feedback from local stakeholders. The analysis focuses on two main themes:

Active modes (walking and cycling), assessed in terms of how they are taken into account in assessments, scenarios and action plans;
Climate issues, addressed as a cross-cutting framework to identify both mitigation levers (emissions reduction, modal shift, etc.) and adaptation levers (infrastructure resilience, thermal comfort, etc.).

The study highlights the synergies between these two areas: measures promoting active modes of transport constitute concrete levers for both mitigation and adaptation. However, it also identifies a significant limitation: while active modes are recognised as a key area for action, climate change often remains an implicit analytical framework and is only rarely translated into explicit climate measures within the SUMPs.
Finally, this analysis is limited to the formal content of the plans and does not assess the feasibility, implementation timelines, or actual delivery of the proposed actions.