MobiliseYourCity in Cameroon

Growing urban mobility needs... hampered by a current inneficient mobility system

Cameroon, 25 million inhabitants, is undergoing a rapid urban population growth. With 55% of its population leaving in cities, it is the most urbanised country in Central Africa. By 2035, about 65% of Cameroonian will live in urban areas. The country is dominated by two major cities: Douala, economical capital and Yaoundé, administrative capital, which are each home of about 2.8 million inhabitants. Both cities are expected to reach about 5.6 million inhabitants by 2035. Small and medium Cameroonian cities are also growing rapidly and event at a faster pace than the two major cities.

Walking is a major transport mode in Cameroonian cities: at least one third of the trips are made by walk in Douala and Yaoundé, despite the bad conditions and lack of walkways. Informal public transport (shared taxis) is also a dominant mode (40% of the trips in Yaoundé, 13% in Douala) just as moto-taxi (12% of the trips in Yaoundé, 40% in Douala). Use of personal cars is rather limited (10% in Yaoundé, 5% in Douala) and the same applies to formal public transport.

Many challenges are currently hampering urban mobility in Cameroon, main ones being:

• urban sprawl contributing to increase mobility needs;
• neglected and unsafe walking conditions;
• poor road safety records with about 20 fatalities per year per 100.000 inhabitants countrywide;
• high traffic congestion despite rather sufficient road network capacity. The congestion is mainly due to unregulated abusive use of roads, inefficient traffic regulation at junctions as well as poor road infrastructures condition;
• inefficient informal public transport which contributes to traffic congestion and are often slow, expensive and unsafe;
• obsolescence of moto-taxis, taxis and mini-buses which are sources of air pollution and GHG emissions and lack of an efficient and massive public transport offer;
• lack of decentralization, especially when it comes to funding.

MobiliseYourCity support in Cameroon at both local and national levels

MobiliseYourCity is supporting Cameroon in planning sustainable urban mobility, both at local and at national levels:

• MobiliseYourCity supported the city of Yaoundé (Communauté Urbaine de Yaoundé – CUY) to develop a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), targeting to increase urban mobility efficiency and sustainability in Yaoundé by 2035. This support was financed by the European Union and implemented with the contribution of the Agence Française de Developpement. Launched in 2018, the Yaoundé SUMP process was achieved in September 2019. The adopted action plan focuses on 4 main strategic activities: improve the efficiency of the road network, ensure safer walking trips, reorganize informal public transport, enhance formal public transport. The proposed measures are financially viable given current financing resources. Main expected impacts of the action plan are a very significant decrease in transport time citywide (-40% compared to a do-nothing scenario) and a decrease in the GHG emissions (-9% compared to a do nothing scenario).

• same wise, MobiliseYourCity supported the city of Douala (Communauté Urbaine de Douala – CUD) to develop a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). This support was financed by the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) and implemented with the contribution of the Agence Française de Developpement. Launched in 2018, the Douala SUMP process was achieved in September 2019. The Douala SUMP action plan entails multimodal actions with a strong emphasis  on improvement and development of public transport: development of a BRT network, in articulation with a feeder bus network, construction of a cable car line. Expected benefits include a reduction of 13% of the time spent in daily trips and decrease of GHG emissions from 174kgCO2/pax/year in a do-nothing scenario to 159kgCO2/pax/year.

• at national level, MobiliseYourCity supported the Cameroonian Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MINDHU) in the adoption of an National Urban Mobility Plan (NUMP). This support was financed by the European Union and implemented with the contribution of the Agence Française de Developpement. The Cameroonian NUMP focuses on 4 main targets: reinforcement of urban mobility governance, increase of financing resources for urban mobility, restructuration and modernization and public transport, better use of state of the art technologies for transport.

Achieved results

• June 2016: launch of MobiliseYourCity initiative in Cameroon through “Mobilise Days“;
• September 2019: Yaoundé SUMP adoption. Since that date, the Communauté Urbaine de Yaoundé engaged in the implementing phase of the SUMP with inter alia the launch of “Yaoundé Coeur de Ville” project, aiming at improving mobility at micro-local levels and the preparation of a Bus Rapid Transit Project.
• September 2019: Douala SUMP adoption. Since that date, the Communauté Urbaine de Douala engaged in the implementing phase of the SUMP with inter alia the preparation of a Bus Rapid Transit Project.
• September 2019: Cameroon NUMP adoption.