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Suburbanization and Inequality in Transport Mobility in Yaoundé, Cameroon: Drawing Public Policy for African Cities

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Name of the Asset | Suburbanization and Inequality in Transport Mobility in Yaoundé, Cameroon: Drawing Public Policy for African Cities
Type of Asset | Working Paper
Date | September 2013

Summary

Africa’s rapid urbanization is one of the most powerful and insistent realities of the early twenty-first century. No aspect of urban life, including transport access, can be understood without a comprehension of the nature and extent of urban change.  This study sets to explore the nature of inequality in mobility in the metropolitan region of Yaoundé city in Cameroon, using data from the urban displacement plan. 

Specifically, the study investigates (a) reasons for mobility; (b) determinants of cost of mobility; (c) differences in mobility in Yaoundé and (d) factors that account for unequal movements in Yaoundé. A series of methodologies are combined: Multiple Correspondence Analysis to construct a mobility index, the decomposition framework to explore the natural inequality of mobility in the different Councils of the Yaoundé city and the Regression-based decomposition to identify factors that determine both costs of mobility and inequality in the cost of mobility.

Results identify differences in mobility between the urban center and the different local councils as well as between these councils. Using a motorcycle for movements, owning a vehicle and the cost of energy as largely explaining inequality in transport mobility. Policy suggestions point to the need for better management of urban growth, the development of road infrastructure, the regulation of emerging means of transportation like motorcycles and the necessity to enact mechanisms that reduce the cost of mobility.

Authors:

  • Boniface Ngah Epo, Faculty of Economics and Management, CEREG, University of Yaoundé II,Cameroon
  • Ongolo Zogo Valérie,  Faculty of Economics and Management, CEREG, University of Yaoundé II,Cameroon

Country and/or Region | Cameroon
Name of the Program | Urbanization and Development: Delving Deeper into the Nexus
Funder(s) |  The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

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