Children, Transport and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Developing a Child-Centred Evidence Base to Improve Policy and Change Thinking Across Africa
                                                         

Project outline:
The project focuses on the mobility constraints faced by girl and boy children in accessing health, educational and other facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of direct information on how these constraints impact on children's current and future livelihood opportunities, and the lack of guidelines on how to tackle them.  The aim is to provide an evidence base strong enough to substantially improve policy in the three focus countries - Ghana, Malawi and South Africa - and to change thinking across Africa.

The project is testing an innovative two-strand child-centred methodology, involving both adult and child researchers.  In addition to a more conventional interview study with children, parents, teachers and community leaders conducted by adult academic researchers, there is a complementary component of truly child-centred research conducted by child researchers (facilitated by adults).  This takes forward an earlier small pilot of the latter approach in Ghana and South Africa.  The aim is to apply the successful child researcher pilot, while ensuring achievement of a substantial and comparable quantitative and qualitative dataset across the three countries from which policy guidelines can be established. [Papers on the child researcher methodology will appear shortly in the American Journal of Community Psychology and Children’s Geographies i.e. late 2009/early 2010].

An inception workshop took place in Blantyre, Malawi in September/October 2006, enabling key country researchers to meet and review their research plans with each other and with the UK team and Professor Michael Bourdillon (who is advising on the research component with children).  The inception workshop included children who had been involved as researchers in the previous project in South Africa and Ghana plus Malawian children who wished to participate in the new study.  Teachers from Ghana, South Africa and Malawi were present to act as chaperones and to provide translation where necessary. The workshop comprised a mix of joint meetings with all researchers and individual meetings of the two strands (i.e. when children and their teachers undertook activities separately from the adult researcher group). 

The inception workshop was followed by the first Malawian children’s training workshop, led by Professor Bourdillon.   Children’s training workshops have subsequently taken place in South Africa (Port St John, also led by Professor Bourdillo, and Pretoria), Ghana (Cape Coast and Sunyani, led by Professor Abane), and Lilongwe, Malawi (led by Dr. Munthali and Dr. Robson).

                                           
                                           First children’s training workshop, Blantyre, Malawi, October 2006

Pilot studies for the adult researcher strand (involving country-based and UK researchers) were completed in each of the three countries by early 2007.  The Malawi pilot was conducted in the Shire highlands region south of Zomba, the Ghana pilot in the coastal savanna/rainforest transition zone north of Cape Coast and the South Africa pilots took place in two separate areas – Port St John Local Municipality Ward 10 and the Winterveld area of North West region - since the South African component will involve two separate research teams for logistical and linguistic reasons. 

Subsequently, work moved to our focus areas for the main phase of the adult research strand. Qualitative data collection in this main phase is now complete. The questionnaire surveys (planned to take place during the rains in each zone) have also been completed and data entered into SPSS. A monitoring review has taken place in each country.

Project information has been disseminated and advice gained through Country Consultative Group meetings in each country (relevant ministries, NGOs, academics with country researchers; second meetings  imminent), through Project Steering Group meetings in UK (Professor Nina Laurie and Dr Janet Townsend, University of Newcastle, Ms Marinke van Riet, IFRTD with UK researchers), and through project presentations to the EU/World Bank SSATP meeting in Maseru, Lesotho (October 2006), and to IFRTD’s Executive Committee (November 2006).  The project has been further publicised through other workshops and conferences (International workshop on Understanding and addressing spatial poverty traps, Stellenbosch, South Africa, March 2007; Institute for African Development workshop, Achieving the MDGs for Africa: the role of transport, at Cornell University, May 2007; CWAS Birmingham University Fourth Cadbury workshop, May 2007; RGS/IBG annual conference, London,  August 2007; 1st International Conference on Children and Youth, University of Reading, September 2007 and 2nd International Conference, Barcelona, July 2009; 1st International Conference of Participatory Geographies, Durham University, January 2008; Conference on walking, Royal Holloway, University of London, 31st March 2008; Global Transport Knowledge Partnership/Transport and Society Meetings, Leeds, March 2008 and Lancaster, September 2009; Association of American Geographers’ annual conference, Boston, USA, April 2008 (session on urban youth); African Studies Association of the UK (health issues in Ghana), Preston, September 2008; Society for Applied Anthropology conference, Santa Fe (March 2009); European African Studies Association, Leipzig (April 2009), Development Studies Association Annual Conference, September 2009.

Timetable: 1st May 2006 - 31st January 2010

Researcher contact addresses:
Dr Gina Porter and Dr Kate Hampshire
        (Department of Anthropology, Durham University),
Ms Marinke Van Riet  (IFRTD London)
Professor Albert Abane (University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
Mr Mac Mashiri (CSIR: Transportek, Pretoria and National Forum Group for rural transport, South Africa)
Dr Elsbeth Robson (University of Malawi and Durham University)
Dr Alister Munthali (University of Malawi)
Prof Michael Bourdillon

If you would like further information on the project please contact the project P. I. , Dr Gina Porter

Site last maintained: 30 September 2009