06/03/2026
Electrifying Informal Transport: Putting Workers at the Centre of the Transition!
Last week GLI attended the Paratransit Electrification Africa Study Tour in Nairobi, organised by C40 Cities, the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI), ZEBRA, Nairobi City County and UN Environment Programme.
The tour brought together city and national government representatives from across Africa who are preparing for the electrification of informal transport systems.
Discussions covered national policy, city transition strategies, charging infrastructure, grid capacity, and gender mainstreaming. We also visited BasiGo and Roam, where we saw how electric buses, motorbikes and charging depots are being deployed within Kenya’s growing e-mobility ecosystem.
As part of the programme, GLI led a workshop together with the ITF - International Transport Workers' Federation on the labour implications of electrifying informal transport. We introduced the Labour Impact Assessment (LIA) methodology and invited authorities to conduct a “mini labour impact assessment” of their planned reforms.
The discussions highlighted both risks and opportunities — including potential job losses, new occupations, barriers to transitioning, limited access to training, and the realities of informal employment. A key takeaway was that electrification is not just about new technology — it is also an opportunity to improve working conditions, skills pathways and livelihoods across the sector.
This work is part of a broader collaboration between the Global Labour Institute (GLI), ITF and VREF – Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, in partnership with C40 Cities, to develop practical Labour Impact Assessment training materials to help cities integrate labour considerations into transport reform.
Electrifying informal transport is not just a technological transition — it is a structural shift affecting thousands of livelihoods. Ensuring the transition is both green and socially just means embedding workers’ voices and labour impacts into transport planning from the very beginning.
The training materials will be refined over the coming months and launched at the VREF Global Convening on Informal & Shared Mobility in Bangkok in October 2026.
