Capacity Building for Leaders in Energy Efficient Urban Transport Planning

Project Summary:

Cities are important engines of economic growth, but rapid urbanization also can cause severe congestion, poor air quality, increased road accidents, and rapid increases in energy consumption. Transportation is a critical issue that affects people’s health, economic prospects, and well-being—and
the sustainability of cities. The program aims to help connect, share and develop technical capacity among leaders, including senior decision makers who influence urban transport policies, to apply green transport principles and methods to promote economic growth.  This is necessary as urban transport cannot be approached in a piecemeal manner and all aspects need to be rolled into a holistic learning approach.

List of Activities:

• Developing capacity amongst leaders on approaching urban mobility in a comprehensive and holistic manner to derive the desired outcomes of sustainable, low carbon and inclusive mobility
• Bringing together the different dimensions that need to come together for problem solving and designing sound urban transport systems
• Leveraging the opportunity of continuous learning through collaboration platforms to feed participants with new knowledge and information and supporting discussion forums

Outcomes:

Output 1:

• 15 offerings of the program over a period of three years, out of which at least three will be in Seoul  

Output 2:

• Additional learning material development in terms of 8 new case studies and three new self-study modules. This material will be used by KOTI and other delivery centers. It will be part of a regular body of learning tools for this capacity building effort and can be used for any offering.  It would also be useful learning material that can be used by educational institutions that take up urban transport teaching programs.  

Output 3:

• Three faculty development workshops aimed at developing capacity to manage action learning approaches to capacity development and teaching/writing case studies  

Output 4:

• A restructured version of the program focusing on secondary cities, where the unique needs to cities at early stages of growth will be addressed.  

Output 5:

• Continuous and active management of the activity on the collaboration platform to help it become a kind of gateway for advice on urban transport related issues. This would require dedicated professional manpower that would monitor activity on the platform and keep it vibrant and updated.  

Output 6:

• Marketing and outreach through flyers, booklets and a promotional film 

Outcomes:

The outcomes of this project place an emphasis on the case study method of learning, coupled with group exercises and site visits. This methodology has been specially chosen keeping in mind the learning style of the target group which comprises of decision makers with several years of work experience. This program has already been offered in several cities, in English, French and Spanish. Offerings have been in Singapore, Seoul, Marseille, Ahmedabad, Buenos Aires and Mexico. Starting with a self-study phase, this program moved on to a face-to-face event requiring intensive discussion of real-life cases, group exercises and site visits. Finally, participants joined a Community of Practice platform that aided continuous learning through discussion forums, news, and continuing learning events. The results of these offerings have been very encouraging and the demand for this program has been growing.

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

Korea particularly has excellent examples to present in terms of planning and managing an integrated transport system. Through institutionalized partnerships with KOTI as a key strategic partner, offerings have been made in Seoul, which aimed to strengthen the capacity of partner institutions to offer this program on a regular basis. KOTI was particularly collaborative during this phase, which emphasized the development of new learning material, faculty development, and continuous learning through the collaboration platform. In addition to KOTI, this program was also run in partnership with the LTA in Singapore, CEPT University in India, AFD in France and Embarq in Mexico.