© GFA

GFA AT URBAN MOBILITY INDIA CONFERENCE

Posted on 30 Oct, 2024 by Hendrik Jaschob

This week, a team of experts from GFA Consulting Group participated in two panel discussions at the Urban Mobility India Conference in Ahmedabad. They also shared experiences from a GIZ project on sustainable urban mobility in India.

The Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference and Expo, which concluded on October 27, is an annual flagship event organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India, as part of the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2006. The event aims to build capacity at the state and city levels to promote sustainable urban transport.

Zohra Mutabanna, team leader of the GIZ SUM-ACA project on sustainable urban mobility, represented GFA in a panel on "Mobility and the 15-minute city". She emphasized the need for intentional planning in transit-oriented mobility by promoting sustainable mobility at the neighborhood level through the 15-minute city concept. Mutabanna also stressed the importance of understanding "what we are planning our transit-oriented mobility for: First, we need to organize sustainable mobility for neighborhoods so that all relevant social infrastructure and amenities are accessible within 15 minutes. Second, we need to meet the demand of those who need to be mobile for their best job opportunities, which may be beyond the 15-minute limit," she told the panel.

In a second UMI panel on "Gender and Mobility", Hendrik Jaschob, consultant and urban planner at GFA, participated in a discussion on gender issues in urban development. He emphasized the importance of integrating gender perspectives into project strategies from the beginning, and the need to build coherent and more robust project processes that integrate gender into urban strategy from start to finish. "It starts with the development of the Terms of Reference (ToR) for projects as a whole, through disaggregated data collection, to planning measures and actions, and budgeting for implementation," said Jaschob.

GFA's presence throughout the UMI fostered productive collaboration with the GIZ team, advancing the SUM-ACA project and strengthening the Green Urban Mobility partnership between Germany and India. "All in all, it was a great collaboration between the GFA and the GIZ team throughout the UMI conference, representing the SUMACA project and the Green Urban Mobility partnership between the German and Indian governments," the experts concluded.