Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for Africa:

The Role of Transport

A Workshop at

Institute for African Development

Cornell University

Ithaca

May 5-6, 2007

Speakers and Chairs

Betty Babirye-Ddungu

Betty Babirye- Ddungu is Social Assessment consultant with Socio-Economic Impact Analysis Group (SEIAG). She is a rural sociologist with MA, Institute of Social Studies, Hague, BA Makerere University Kampala. She was previously working as Social Assessment Advisor with Ministry of Transport and Works, before working in the same field with Ministry of Finance, planning and Economic Department and Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment, Government of Uganda.

Michael Bell

Michael Bell is Professor of Transport Operations at London's Imperial College. His research interests span smart vehicle navigations systems, transport network reliability, accessible transport for older people, the ramifications of congestion charging, traffic signal control and port operations. He is the director of the Port Operations Research and Technology Centre (PORTeC) in the Department of Civil Engineering. Recently he has been involved in a World Bank study of port efficiency in South Africa.

Deborah Fahy Bryceson

Deborah Fahy Bryceson is an economic geographer at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Her current research encompasses the interaction of livelihood, settlement and mobility patterns. Specializing in East African studies, she has authored and edited a number of books including Liberalizing Tanzania's Food Trade, Farewell to Farms (co-edited with Vali Jamal) and most recently African Urban Economies' (co-edited with Deborah Potts).

Kifle Gebremedhin

Kifle Gebremedhin is a Professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering, and of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison<.  His responsibilities include teaching and research.  His research program is in structural mechanics, testing and modeling full-scale post-frame building systems, and heat and mass transfer in the context of animal bioenergetics for maximum production and reproduction potential.

Margaret Grieco

Margaret Grieco is Professor of Transport and Society at Napier University, Edinburgh, and Visiting Professor at the Institute of African Development, Cornell University. She has been Professor at the University of Ghana, and has served on the staff of the World Bank. Her cv shows 17 volumes and journal special issues and over 80 articles, and she is the series editor of the book series Transport and Society and Voices in Development Management from Ashgate. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Ravi Kanbur

Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs and Economics at Cornell University. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He has served on the staff of the World Bank, including as Chief Economist for Africa. His research and policy interests are in the fields of development economics and public economics.

Deladem Kusi-Appouh

Deladem Kusi-Appouh is a graduate student in Development Sociology at Cornell University.  Her interests are in social demography, including the multidimensional and generational effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on young women and men.

Yael Levitte

Yael Levitte is a visiting assistant professor at the department of City and Regional Planning. She is also a senior research associate at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations in the Workforce and Economic Development (WEID) group. Her research focuses on the link between social networks, social institutions, human capital, and economic development.

Edward Mabaya

Edward Mabaya is a Research Associate in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. His research interests include commodity price analysis and the role of efficient agricultural markets in rural economic development.  Mabaya earned both his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University and a B.Sc. from the University of Zimbabwe.

Tatenda Mbara

Tatenda Mbara is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. He studied in the UK at the universities of Aston and Westminster. Tatenda has researched, written and presented numerous papers at international conferences. He has undertaken consultancy for private and public companies and international development partners in the areas of transport policy, rural accessibility, public transport systems and distribution management.

John Mbwana

John Mbwana is Senior Research Associate in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University. He received an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) - Tanzania, and a M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in transportation engineering from Cornell University. He joined Cornell faculty in the fall of 1993 as a visiting scientist. At Cornell he has been (since 1996) the program administrator of a Cornell-based transportation infrastructure research think-tank that advises and conducts infrastructure research for the New York State Department of Transportation.

Talia McCRay

Talia McCray is Assistant Professor of Transportation Planning, College of Business Administration, University of Rhode Island. She holds a BS in Mathematics and MS in Electrical Engineering. Her Ph.D, from the University of Michigan, is in Transportation Planning and Technology. She has published on the links between transportation and health, social exclusion and culture.

Ronald McQuaid

Ronald McQuaid is Professor and Director of the Employment Research Institute at Napier University, Edinburgh. He was educated at Lancaster University, the London School of Economics and Harvard University. He has carried out work for many regional, national and supra-national bodies in the fields of employment, economic development and related transport issues. His research and policy interests are in the fields of employment and regional development.

John Nelson

John Nelson is Professor of Public Transport Systems and previously Director of Research in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle University. His principal research interests are in public transport operations and management with special reference to the contribution of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). From 1st July 2007 he will be the Sixth Century Professor of Transport Studies at the University of Aberdeen where he will be responsible for establishing a new transport research centre.

Muna Ndulo

Muna Ndulo is a Professor of Law Cornell Law School and Director of Cornell University's Institute for African Development.  He was formerly Professor of Law and Dean  of the School of Law , University of Zambia.  He served as Legal Office in the International Trade Law Brach of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).   He also served as Legal Adviser and Political Adviser with the United Nations Mission Observer Mission in South Africa( UNOMSA) United Nations Assistance Mission to EAST Timor(UNAMET), United Nations Mission to Kosovo (UNAMIK) and United Nations Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Robert M. Okello

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa – Currently Director of NEPAD and Regional Integration Division; previously Director of the Office for Policy and Programme Planning and Coordination, ECA Office in Southern Africa, Regional Cooperation and Integration Division, and Chief Technical Advisor for the United Nations Transport and Communications Decade for Africa Project. Before joining the UN 1985, worked in Corporate Planning at AT&T and Kennecott Copper Company in New York. Graduate in Industrial Engineering (Ph.D) from SUNY Buffalo and Electrical Engineering (BSc.) from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.

Gina Porter

Gina Porter is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK.  She has long-standing research interests in mobility, transport and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa.

Zaza Ramandimbiarison

Zaza Ramandimbiarison is the Programme Manager of the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Programme at the World Bank. Before joining the World Bank in 1998, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of Madagascar. His degrees include Ingenieur Civil des Ponts et Chaussées from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (France), and Certificate in Management and Development Planning from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rachel Reichenbach

Rachel Reichenbach is a graduate student in Development Sociology at Cornell University. She has recently completed her masters thesis entitled, “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? The Link Between Ideology and Health in America.” Her research interests include informal settlements, identity construction, state ideology, alternative technology transfers, and urban agriculture in Africa and she will be conducting dissertation field research in Nairobi, Kenya this summer.

Yoichi Sakurada

Yoichi Sakurada is a Senior Consultant and Project Management Professional of Transport Planning at Mitsubishi Research Institute. He was educated at Tokyo University and obtained Doctor of Engineering. His interests of consultation work and research are in the field of transport planning and development economics in developing countries.

Elizabeth Seward

Elizabeth Seward is a master's candidate in City & Regional Planning with a focus in community and economic development, particularly in Southeast Europe. She has completed fieldwork in Bulgaria on regional and local economic development issues. She also holds degrees in History and Economics.

Jeffrey Turner

Jeff Turner is an independent consultant who is a specialist in the linkages between transport and social development. He has over 18 years experience of research and consultancy on gender and transport, young people and transport, and the transport needs of low-income communities in the developing and developed world.