Mobility: Group seeks collaboration on deploying e-bikes to inspire climate action

Green Waka, Walkingbike/BV, and the Dutch Cycling Embassy (DCE) have invited stakeholders to partner and implement the Green Waka New Mobility Africa Campaign (GW NMAC) to promote human health and safety while also encouraging environmental stewardship. This initiative also seeks to encourage countries to prioritise walking and cycling in their NDCs and national policies. It […]

Green Waka, Walkingbike/BV, and the Dutch Cycling Embassy (DCE) have invited stakeholders to partner and implement the Green Waka New Mobility Africa Campaign (GW NMAC) to promote human health and safety while also encouraging environmental stewardship.

This initiative also seeks to encourage countries to prioritise walking and cycling in their NDCs and national policies. It focused on championing infrastructural development, active travel campaigns, land use planning, integration with public transport, and capacity building.

Furthermore, the programme aims to emphasise the importance of safe and accessible walking and cycling infrastructure, particularly in urban areas.

According to Rob van Ooijen, co-founder of Walkingbike/BV, the Green Waka New Mobility Africa Campaign (GW-NMAC) is a game changer for sustainable mobility in Africa.

Ooijen, who made the statement last Thursday, at this year’s Business Day Ambassador Conference held in the Netherlands, lauded the Lopifit walking e-bike as a practicable alternative to traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

With its innovative design and eco-friendly features, he added that the e-bike is an ideal solution for Africa’s metropolitan mobility challenges.

“The Lopifit is a unique means of transport. You are able to get around like you never did before! An easy stroll and still reaching speeds of up to 25 km per hour. A true revolution,” he stated.

Some of the ambassadors he met and spoke with during the conference, including those from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Benin, commended the project’s benefits in terms of health, safety, and environmental protection.

During a sideline engagement meeting and presentation of the project’s brief to Michel Deelen, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, he stated that the initiative will require collaboration from governments, development organisations, and the private sector.

Other diplomats, including Joris Jurriëns, who is in charge of Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea; Jeroen Verheul, who oversees Ghana; and Jeroen Kelderhuis, who is in control of Ivory Coast, urged that the campaign concentrates on image building because of cultural barriers, especially in Ghana, where cycling is seen as a low-income and impoverished activity.

They also suggest that the campaign should focus on ways to facilitate the development of policies and infrastructure in order to achieve its ultimate goal of accelerating climate action.

Speaking on the project implementation plan, Green Waka’s co-founder and leader, Michael Mbaike, hinted that his organisation is committed to cooperating with any interested body to make walking and cycling in African countries safer, healthier, and more comfortable.

Mbaike, who also serves as the African representative of the Walkingbike/BV, applauded the various regional and international initiatives and historic accomplishments of groups like the Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH), the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI), and the Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility (PAAPAM) for promoting active travel, walking, and cycling as essential elements of climate solutions and making sure that countries include them in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

“Our primary goal is to promote sustainable and active transport, which prioritises active mobility (walking and cycling) to account for over 50 percent of the mobility mix, enabling an environmentally friendly, socially just, and economically viable life for all,” he said.

He guaranteed that his establishment, a communication-oriented platform that advocates, educates, and protects environmental rights, will offer its expertise to help make sure the GW NMAC plan is carried out successfully.

“We will offer our best-designed campaign for the course and goal,” Mbaike assured.

Similarly, Chris Bruntlett, International Relations Manager at the Dutch Cycling Embassy (DCE), praised Green Waka for initiating the project, describing it as extremely strategic, given that a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) policy report revealed that over one billion people in Africa Walk and cycle every day.

Like the previous speakers, he voiced his frustration over the absence of clear policies to promote active mobility habits, which still plague the sector’s need for funding to support infrastructure development.

“This project will activate the invisible and silent majority, as well as empower them to demand change from their elected officials and policymakers,” Bruntlett said, during a discussion on the campaign execution.