Authored by Jill Warren and Froso Christofides

ECF goes to WUF12 to advocate for cycling’s potential to help meet climate goals and improve people’s health and lives

The twelfth session of the World Urban Forum by UN-Habitat took place on 4-8 November 2024, in Cairo, Egypt with the theme It All Starts at Home: Local Actions for Sustainable Cities & Communities. Taking place every two years, the World Urban Forum (WUF) is the premier global conference on sustainable urbanisation. Representatives of national, regional and local governments, academics, business people, community leaders, urban planners and civil society representatives were among the thousands of people who attended WUF12, which was co-organised by The Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

CEO Jill Warren and Director of Members & Networks Froso Christofides attended WUF12 to represent not only ECF, but also the Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH), which ECF co-founded and serves as a core coordinating partner.     

ECF hosts successful side event with PATH Partners and mobility experts

On 5 November, ECF hosted an official WUF12 side event entitled Walking and cycling: A PATH to unlock active mobility’s potential to help meet climate goals, make our cities more liveable and improve people’s lives around the world.

The session was moderated by Jill Warren and featured an inspiring line-up of speakers: Ghada Abdul Aziz, Research Associate at Transport for Cairo; Lucas Harms, Deputy Director Active Mobility at the Netherlands Ministry for Infrastructure and Water Management; Atsani Ariobowo, Director Child and Youth Health at FIA Foundation; Dana Yanocha, Senior Research Manager at ITDP; and Janene Tuniz, Sustainable Mobility Officer at United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

An overview of PATH Knowledge Tools was presented by Jill Warren, including the PATH Dashboard, the report on National Policies for Walking and Cycling in all 197 UNFCCC countries, PATH Walking and Cycling Regional Fact Sheets, and the PATH Active Travel NDC Template. The template offers a step-by-step guide with 20 actions to create effective policies, interventions and campaigns to create safe and accessible places to walk and cycle. Attendees were also invited to sign and promote the PATH COP29 Open Letter campaign calling on national governments to include walking and cycling in their climate commitments.

The opening presentation was followed by two keynote speeches. Ghada Abdul Aziz from Transport for Cairo spoke about the localisation of the PATH Active Mobility NDC Template for Egypt, a noteworthy example of how PATH knowledge tools are being applied in practice. Lucas Harms of the Netherlands Ministry for Infrastructure and Water Management, spoke about the Netherlands-backed Alliance for Cycling and Walking Towards International Vitality and Empowerment (ACTIVE), and the progress towards the capacity building goal of training 10,000 active mobility professionals in ten years.

The keynotes were followed by a panel discussion on how walking and cycling can play a greater role in mitigating climate change and improving people’s health and lives in cities, and what support cities need at the national and international levels. Janene Tuniz, UNEP, gave a sneak preview prior to the official launch of the Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility (PAAPAM), concluding a process that has directly engaged with more than 1300 stakeholders. Dana Yanocha spoke about securing financing for active travel infrastructure and ITDP’s collaboration with the World Bank on a report showcasing World Bank-funded cycling projects and highlighting opportunities for funding in connection with larger transport projects. She also talked about ITDP’s Cycling Cities campaign. Sani Ariobowo highlighted FIA Foundation’s catalytic role in supporting partners in implementing impactful programmes and their advocacy towards legislative change for safer and healthier cities for children. All speakers agreed that national governments must help enable cities to develop active mobility infrastructure and programmes by setting up proper mechanisms for funding accessibility, frameworks to reduce the risks incurred by cities, and by understanding and acting with the urgency required in the service of common goals.

Cycling and active mobility prominently featured in multiple events

ECF also presented PATH’s Active Mobility NDC Template in a session organised by GIZ’s Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. Other participants who shared details of their respective NDC templates and guidance included representatives from UIC (rail) UITP (public transport), and the Global Network for Popular Transportation.

Beyond this, PATH Partner organisations led multiple events highlighting walking and cycling’s potential for city development and decarbonisation. These included, for example, ITDP’s training event on "Access-Accelerating Access to Low Carbon Urban Mobility Solutions through Digitalization," exploring how digital technologies can transform transportation systems, the Dutch Cycling Embassy’s session in the Urban Cinema on “Building a (happy, healthy, and safe) Cycle-Friendly Future for Children” – which featured the short documentary film “Rotterdam fietst!”, and BYCS’s networking event on “Advancing Caring Cities: Active mobility for healthy, safer, and inclusive child-friendly futures”.

Beyond the formal programme, ECF also participated in a number of field visits and invitation-only events. This included a walking tour of downtown Cairo during which participants also got to see new bike share stations, a tour of a brand new light rail and metro station, a transport-themed reception hosted by the Netherlands and a reception hosted by FIA Foundation for its partners.

Commenting on ECF’s participation in WUF12, Jill Warren said, “Froso and I were proud to represent ECF and PATH at this major global event and share ECF and PATH’s latest research, knowledge products and advocacy achievements with the international community. We also appreciated the valuable networking opportunities and the chance to meet with a number of key stakeholders in the run-up to COP29 in Baku.”