Children, Transport and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa

The project, conducted between May 2006 and April 2010, focused on the mobility constraints faced by girl and boy children in accessing health, educational and other facilities in sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of direct information on how these constraints impact on children’s current and future livelihood opportunities. The aim was to provide an evidence base strong enough to substantially improve policy in the three focus countries – Ghana, Malawi and South Africa – and to change thinking across Africa.

The project tested an innovative two-strand child-centred methodology, involving both adult and child researchers. In addition to a more conventional interview study with children, parents, teachers and community leaders conducted by adult academic researchers, there was a complementary component of truly child-centred research conducted by child researchers (facilitated by adults). This took forward an earlier small pilot (Porter and Abane 2008).