In Peru, Cerema helps support the authorities in their urban mobility plans

Support in creating sustainable urban mobility plans

The French Development Agency (AFD) launched FEXTE programmes[1] to bolster local competencies in urban mobility, helping local authorities to plan for and secure projects which the Agency could then fund. This support consists mainly of themed workshops and technical tours. In Peru, the AFD’s FEXTE programme involved the Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communications, along with four of the country’s major cities (Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, Trujillo).

Five themed workshops, four technical visits to France, and many more supervision meetings were held over the course of the two year cooperation programme, in an effort to facilitate the paradigm shift from conventional transport provided by small operators, to a more structured and integrated transport system in Peruvian cities.

Project management for the FEXTE Peru programme was entrusted to Codatu [2], a charitable association that works to improve urban transport systems around the world, and of which Cerema is a member. The programme’s technical management was provided by Des villes et des hommes.

Cerema was involved from the very beginning. Benjamin Fouchard, from Cerema Mediterranean, travelled to Lima and Arequipa in April 2016 to help identify the local and national authorities’ expectations for the cooperation programme, and to plan the first transport seminar. This seminar, on Urban Transport and Mobility in Peruvian Cities: Towards a Smart, Sustainable Transformation, was held in May 2016. At the seminar, participative working groups were held in which attendees brainstormed on breathing new life into the historic city centre, through mobility projects or technological advances in transport systems.

In November and December 2016, Florence Girault and Bertrand Dépigny, from Cerema Regions and Cities, took part in the cooperation programme’s third seminar in Lima.

Cerema supports Arequipa in its mobility plan

In 2016, as part of the technical cooperation scheme, Cerema offered its expertise to the city of Arequipa (population: 2 million). Cerema drafted a preliminary memorandum comparing modes of transport, with a view to establishing a mobility plan for the city and structuring the urban transport system. A tram network was selected to connect the city centre to the outskirts, and to reduce traffic. 

In 2018, in parallel to the FEXTE programme, Euroclima+, a European programme, was rolled out in Latin America. It followed the principles of the MobiliseYourCity initiative, of which Cerema was a founding member: to help emerging and developing cities create more sustainable urban mobility plans for more inclusive spaces with a higher quality of life, boosting their economic appeal, and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Under the programme, seven pilot cities – including Arequipa – were chosen to receive technical support in drafting their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).

Over the course of the trip to Lima on 4 to 9 June, during which the cooperation programme’s closing forum was held, Thierry Gouin, from Cerema Territorial Development and Urban Planning, worked with the French FEXTE team, Peru’s Ministry of Transport and city departments on a project to create terms of reference to recruit a consultant to draft Arequipa’s Sustainable Urban Transport and Mobility Plan.

A forum to capitalise on progress

The cooperation programme’s closing forum was held in Lima on 7 June, and covered the theme of Urban Transport in Peru: Shifting the Paradigm. The forum provided an opportunity to showcase what the FEXTE programme had achieved in Peru, as well as to capitalise on local and national projects to deliver Integrated Transport Systems (ITS) in Peruvian cities, and work towards developing planning instruments and the use of digital tools.

The forum was also intended to develop synergies between cities, as well as between the Peruvian Ministry of Transport and local transport authorities.

Cerema introduced and chaired the forum’s second session on planning instruments and policies to improve transit in Peruvian cities, from small independent operators to structured public transport.

This intervention enabled a link to be made between the MobiliseYourCity initiative, which promotes the planning of more sustainable urban mobility, and the European Euroclima+ programme which is helping several Latin American cities to do just that, including Arequipa.

[1] Fund for Technical Expertise and Experience Transfers

[2] Cooperation for Urban Mobility in the Developing World.