Africa review report on transport: final draft main report

Abstract

Transport is among the thematic cluster of issues to be considered by the 18th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18) to be held in May 2010. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 58/218 mandates UN Regional Commissions in collaboration with the Secretariat of CSD, regional institutions as well as United Nations organizations to organize multi-stakeholder Regional Implementation Meetings (RIMs) to provide regional input to the work of the CSD. The preparation of this regional review report on transport was commissioned with the view to providing a report to form background information for the Africa RIM as describe above. This RIM will review implementation progress achieved in the thematic cluster of issues to be considered by CSD-18 in the context of commitments, goals and targets agreed upon by member states and contained in the Agenda 21 (A21), the Program of Further Implementation of Agenda 21 (PFIA21) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the Outcomes of the WSSD (JPOI). The report is divided into six sections. Introduction to the report is contained in section one, which includes a brief background, objectives and outline of the structure of the report. Section two provides an overview of the status and emerging issues in the transport sector in Africa. The section also includes a review of the significance of the transport sector in Africa. In section three, actions taken and progress made towards the implementation of the commitments and goals contained in A21, PFIA21 and JPOI are presented. Section four deals with the challenges and constraints faced by Africa in the implementation of the various commitments and achievement of its goals with regard to the development of sustainable transport. Section five addresses the lessons learned and provides a set of policy and other actions necessary to expedite implementation of transport related targets, commitments and strategies in Africa. The conclusions are presented in section six.