There is evidence internationally that there is a positive association between an increase in GDP per capita and growing car use in cities. However, car-oriented urban development results in strong negative externalities, such as high C02 emissions, air pollution, congestion, road accidents, urban sprawl, social exclusion, spatial segregation and sedentary lifestyles. These lead to poor accessibility and inequity and affects socio-economic development. Most Global North cities with high levels of motorization are now attempting to constrain and reduce traffic levels and move towards sustainable mobility and more liveable cities. Cities in developing countries are faced with a stark choice of repeating the evolutionary mistakes of many of the cities in more developed countries, or 'leapfrogging' car-oriented mobility to directly develop cities around the principles of sustainable mobility and liveability. Growing urban economies have an opportunity to establish innovative solutions for achieving sustainable and inclusive mobility and land use patterns; thus, avoiding being 'locked-in' to a car-oriented development trajectory - which can prove very difficult and expensive to rectify at later stages of development. T-SUM is an interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaborative project that aims to identify the conditions under which sustainable and inclusive transport and land use development can be accelerated in growing cities in the Global South. It is grounded in the observation that, in the context of still-low-but-rising levels of motorization, economic growth and increasing social and spatial inequalities, the formulation and implementation of policies, practices and partnerships that can support an accelerated implementation of sustainable mobility structures is an urgent concern for rapidly developing cities. This project will initially focus on Maputo, Mozambique, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, as relevant examples of growing urban economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the Global South. Challenging the traditionally assumed links between economic growth and car-based urban transport, alongside documenting the socioeconomic and spatial inequalities stemming from current urban transport systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, requires rethinking some of the knowledge and methodologies produced about cities of the region. This proposal seeks to contribute to this debate through three objectives: firstly, to develop a conceptual framework based on alternative development trajectories for (un)sustainable urban transport, drawing on data from cities across the Global North and the Global South; secondly, to assemble and co-produce evidence by interrogating urban transport and land use data in two rapidly developing cities in the region, Maputo and Freetown; and thirdly, to initiate participative governance processes to foster new models of development based on a sustainable mobility trajectory, through evidence-based engagement with public and professional stakeholders across levels of governance and sectors. The process will rely on collaborations across disciplines, with government and with local communities; and ultimately will produce evidence-based knowledge for informing policy and accelerating sustainable and socially inclusive transport development in Sub-Saharan African cities, and beyond. Expected impacts include: Improved urban governance processes and institutional capacity-building in the cities of Maputo and Freetown;The introduction of a tradition of citizen engagement and co-production; Accelerated urban transport development pathways based on sustainability and inclusivity principles, resulting in improved physical and mental well-being, increased prosperity, reduced C02 emissions, air pollution and energy consumption, improved accessibility and social inclusion in cities; A legacy of data and analytical tools that will assist both cities in their future sustainable mobility planning and implementation.

The 2019 Energy Progress Report shows the need to step up efforts to link on-grid and off-grid strategies to facilitate access to electricity (EIA et al, 2019). According to the report, eight of the twenty countries with the largest deficits in access to electricity are in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique. In countries facing such significant gaps in energy access, the rapid adoption of renewable energy may help to deliver access to energy sustainably. The growing availability of renewable technologies in East Africa's countries suggests that such a transition is possible. However, technology alone will not solve the challenge of energy access. A transition to sustainable energy needs to prioritise the social needs of excluded and disadvantaged groups. Responding to people's energy needs requires institutional, organisational, and financial models of energy delivery that prioritise social benefits over profits. New models of energy delivery have been developed to involve communities in the design and management of off-grid systems. While the size and technologies used vary, all Community Energy Systems (henceforth CESs) incorporate the perspectives of beneficiaries on electricity generation and distribution through collaborative mechanisms for decision-making. CESs can provide additional capacity to existing grids, provide off-grid services where the grid is absent, and bridge on-grid and off-grid systems. The project CESET brings together researchers from political science, human geography, engineering and technology providers to understand the role of CESs in advancing a just sustainable energy transition that will bridge the energy access gap in East Africa. Our focus is in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique, three countries where there is considerable local enthusiasm about CESs. Proponents of CESs argue that they can foster deep structural transformations in countries facing large electricity deficits. First, by giving ownership to communities, CESs challenge the political economy of energy and reveal energy-related inequalities. Second, by demonstrating new modes of service provision, CESs can diversify the institutional landscape of energy delivery. Third, by incorporating the concerns of the more disadvantaged populations in the design and management of energy services, CESs can respond to their needs directly and generate innovations tailored to those needs. There is little evidence of how CESs work in practice and their impacts in East Africa because of the shortage of data on CESs, and energy systems more generally. There is a need to renew policy and practice. Research and interventions often rely on technological blueprints that do not fit the institutional and material conditions in which CESs operate. Moreover, conceptualisations of communities as harmonious, homogenous units obscure the multiple forms of exclusion that influence energy access and infrastructure management. There is already an international consensus about the need for disaggregated data to understand the gender gap in energy access. CESET advocates going beyond by considering the intersection of gender with multiple social characteristics that may also lead to exclusion from energy services (such as age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, place of origin). CESET will produce three outcomes to address this challenge. CESET's theoretical framework will recognise the variety of CESs models and how they interact with multiple variables of community diversity. CESET will also characterise the landscape of operation of CESs in East Africa at three scales: local, national, and regional. Further learning will happen with the activation of a Community Energy Lab in Mozambique to compile evidence of what works in practice. CESET's efforts will lead to the creation of a Regional Energy Learning Alliance to deliver a long-term research programme and support trans-sectorial learning on CESs in East Africa.

Our GCRF TRADE Hub addresses a global challenge that has led to dramatic decline in biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in the past century, and if not addressed will significantly imperil the development of lower income nations. Trade in wildlife and agricultural commodities from low and middle income to higher income countries has increased rapidly over the last decades, and is projected to expand rapidly into the future to meet demands. Although trade is vital for national development, it also can carry heavy environmental and social costs, particularly for poor rural people in DAC countries, mainly because there is a great imbalance of power within the decision-making system and the most affected people are relatively powerless and voiceless in the decision-making process. The development of these trades over the past decades have has also resulted in considerable impacts on natural systems, threatening with extinction thousands of species globally. Addressing the issue of balancing the positives of ever-expanding trade with its costs is essential to addressing several of the SDGs, to protect and promote livelihoods within vulnerable communities in DAC countries, and is important for the UK in terms of negotiating sustainable trade deals that also meet other environmental and social development commitments. The Hub will work on a number of key trade flows that are particularly important to our focal developing countries and the UK, and where we have existing strengths that will allow us to have real impact in the lifetime of the Hub. This will include trade that has a direct impact on biodiversity - for example the global trade in wildlife for a range of uses, including the regional and national trade in wild meat. It will also include agricultural commodity trades that have indirect impacts on biodiversity through conversion or degradation of habitats. Its strong international and interdisciplinary research team, including economists, trade modellers, political scientists, ecologists and development scientists, will produce novel, impact-orientated research. Through involving companies, UN-related trade bodies and governments, the project will be embedded in the needs of the economy and development at large. We have ten work packages: During the project design phase WP0 will further elaborate a detailed theory of change and mapping exercise leading to the co-design of the research programme with critical stakeholders (private sector actors, trade organisations and NGOs). This will lead into the delivery of eight interlinked work packages: WP1: Understanding wildlife trade from DAC countries (live animals, skins, non-timber products, wildmeat) at the supply end; volumes and characteristics of local and export trade, and impacts on biodiversity and resource users; WP2: Understanding supply to demand-end agricultural commodity trade pathways, volumes and characteristics, within and exported from DAC countries; WP3: Determining the magnitude and spatial-temporal distribution of social benefits and costs for selected wildlife and commodity supply chains from the supply to demand ends; WP4: Understanding how trade and economic policies impact on wild-sourced and agricultural commodity trades and their impact on people and nature; WP5: Modelling the implementation of different scenarios of trade policy and corporate decision making; WP6: Developing solutions and building capacity through engagement with the private sector (large corporations and investors); WP7: Developing solutions and building capacity, through engaging with trade public sector rule-setting agencies and national policy makers; WP8: Outreach and Technology Solutions. We also have a cross-cutting WP9: building DAC partner capacity to ensure ongoing, sustainable research-led solutions to TRADE's intractable challenge. We involved DAC countries, corporations, investment bodies, and UN-linked trade agencies in the co-design of this Hub from the outset.