
Publications
Policy notes, academic publications and written resources
Walking off the beaten path: Everyday walking environment and practices in informal settlements in Freetown
March, 2021

Authors: Daniel Oviedo, Seth Asare Okyere, Mariajosé Nieto, Michihiro Kita, Louis Frimpong Kusi, Yasmina Yusuf, Braima Koroma
Journal : Research in Transportation Business & Management
This paper presents preliminary results of a pilot study that examined the walking environment and everyday walking practices in an informal settlement in Freetown, Sierra Leone, using web-based mapping and a qualitative questionnaire. Through context-specific understandings of the everyday walking environment, the research provides avenues for urban transport and development planners to work with local actors for improving accessibility in informal urban neighborhoods facing acute structural deficits for urban mobility and access to essential everyday services.
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Actor-Network Analysis of Community-Based Organisations in Health Pandemics: Evidence from Covid-19 Response in Freetown, Sierra Leone
September, 2021

Authors: Louis Kusi Frimpong, Seth Asare Okyere, Stephen Kofi Diko, Matthew Abunyewah, Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie, Tracy Sidney Commodore, Daniel Oviedo Hernandez, and Michihiro Kita
Based on a qualitative study in two informal settlements in Freetown, this paper draws on actor-network theory to understand how CBOs problematize Covid-19 as a health risk and interact with other actors and the tensions that arise within these actor networks. The study suggests that creating new channels for knowledge exchange and building on CBO capacity can help strengthen actor networks in communities and combat current and future health disasters.
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Accelerating sustainable mobility and land-use transitions in rapidly growing cities
T-SUM Report
March, 2021
This paper aims to identify recurrent governance and policy factors across sectors, as well as macro factors, that tend to contribute to car-dependent urban mobility systems in rapidly growing cities. It draws on qualitative and quantitative research findings from five Eastern European and Middle Eastern cities: Tallinn, Bucharest, Skopje, Adana and Amman.It investigates the extent to which some of these factors are preventable.
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Participatory Policy Planning
T-SUM Report
February 2021
This report summarises the approach and methodology for two participatory workshops, held in Freetown, Sierra Leone as part of the T-SUM project. It provides a detailed account of the preparatory and implementation processes and offers reflections on the practical experience of holding these workshops. The objective of this report is to provide one illustration of how to implement participatory policy processes in the mobility sector, in the context of rapidly growing Sub-Saharan African cities.
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CITY PROFILE - Freetown: Base Conditions of Mobility, Accessibility and Land Use
Working paper
February 2021
This city profile aims to provide an overview of Freetown’s urban development with a focus on the transport sector to support pathways to sustainable urban mobility in the long term. It is the first rigorous attempt at producing evidence-based knowledge for understanding the main drivers of current development trajectories and their influence on urban mobility, accessibility, social and environmental issues in Freetown.
The objective of the city profile is to contribute to discussions in local, national and global arenas by drawing on debates about mobility transitions and sustainable development. It focuses on describing the base conditions from which to examine trajectories towards more sustainable mobility.
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Strategic vision for sustainable urban transport and mobility in Sierra Leone:
Timeline of policy priorities
November 2020
This document summarises the consensus that emerged during the T-SUM workshop ‘Future Freetown, Improving Mobility – from Vision to Implementation’ that took place on March 4th 2020 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The participatory workshop was led by SLURC and UCL, with the support of Freetown City Council, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, the Sierra Leone Road Transport Cooperation, the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineer, Fourah Bay College and
the Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation.
Circa 50 key stakeholders across sectors and representatives of the public participated.
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Strategic vision for sustainable urban transport and mobility in Sierra Leone:
Practical implementation constraints and opportunities
October 2020
This document summarises the consensus that emerged during the T-SUM workshop ‘Future Freetown, Improving Mobility – from Vision to Implementation’ that took place on March 4th 2020 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The participatory workshop was led by SLURC and UCL, with the support of Freetown City Council, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, the Sierra Leone Road Transport Cooperation, the Sierra Leone Institution of Engineer, Fourah Bay College and
the Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation.
Circa 50 key stakeholders across sectors and representatives of the public participated.
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Strategic vision for sustainable urban transport and mobility in Sierra Leone:
Lessons and insights from Freetown
June 2020
This document summarises the consensus that emerged during the T-SUM workshop ‘Future
Freetown, a Vision to Improve Mobility’ that took place on December 3rd and 4th 2019 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The workshop was led by SLURC and UCL, with the support of Freetown City Council, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority, the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, the Sierra Leone Road Transport Cooperation, the Sierra Leone Institute of Engineer, Fourah Bay College and the Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation.
Circa 50 key stakeholders across sectors and representatives of the public participated.
Read the full report by clicking on the image above or the PDF icon on the right.
Oviedo et al. (Accepted pending modifications). Accessibility and sustainable mobility transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from Freetown. Journal of Transport Geography