Part of the solutions to African cities’ traffic woes is to incorporate informal networks into their public transport systems.

As the world directs more efforts toward solving its transport challenges, it’s crucial that African countries explore strategies that fit the local context. A key to solving Africa’s traffic problems lies in a homegrown mode of public transport: vans.

The next decade will be transformative for the world’s 4.6 billion city-dwellers. Earlier this month, the United Nations completed a global consultation to inform the first U.N. Decade of Sustainable Transport, which aims to steer global efforts toward “sustainable, inclusive, and resilient transportation systems.”

It’s a critical effort. Global urbanization is causing overwhelming traffic congestion across many of the world’s cities, making transport unsafe and unhealthy, while producing vehicle emissions that are major contributors to climate change.

The importance of informal transport

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