Leaders in Urban Transport Planning capacity building program brings policymakers, transport professionals to Mexico City

The World Bank and EMBARQ Mexico concluded its month-long 2013 Leaders in Urban Transport Planning capacity building program in Mexico City on May 25. The training was part of the World Bank’s “Leadership in Urban Transport Planning” capacity building series, which aims at building capacity for holistic and comprehensive urban planning.

This year’s program, conducted in Spanish, was geared toward developing leadership, awareness and implementation strategies for urban integrated mobility planning.

Among the program’s participants were senior-level policy makers in urban transport at the national, provincial and city levels, staff from international non-governmental organizations, consulting firms, and members from the academic community.

The program sought to build awareness among participants of what integrated mobility planning involves, what its different components are and how it needs to be undertaken as a “hands-on” learning approach, making extensive use of case studies, group exercises and site visits, all aimed at highlighting connections between different components of the urban transport system.

The importance of this training lies in its potential to create impact. EMBARQ seeks to share the lessons learned from its projects and its available resources, whether from model laws, new technologies or institutional findings. The goal is to multiply the effect by exposing people to information that they may not have been previously.

The event is organized by EMBARQ Mexico, with support from the World Bank-administered Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) program and the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).

Participants devoted themselves to self-study from April 26 to May 19 at their individual workplaces. The seven-day educational workshop in Mexico City followed, from May 19 to 25, 2013.

Past events in the World Bank Leadership in Urban Transport Planning capacity-building series have been held in Singapore (January 2012), as well as in France, Argentina, Korea, China and India. The program has proven very successful, with several calls for similar programs elsewhere.

For further information, please contact Gisela Méndez at EMBARQ Mexico.