This is a Summary Workshop Report from the Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT), who led a workshop on Paratransit Day (16 March 2023) at the Transforming Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C., USA.

Paratransit Day was co-organized by the World Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Transportation Program (SSTAP), Digital Transport for Africa (DT4A), World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT). As part of the Paratransit Day’s activities, GNPT, which is a project of the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC), ran this workshop – to reimagine the techno-social infrastructure for collecting data on informal and shared mobility in LMIcs. The participatory workshop asked these questions:

• How can we bridge the existing global data gaps on informal and shared mobility in low- and middle income countries?
• What techno-social infrastructure do we need to collect and maintain data on informal and shared mobility in low- and middle income countries?

More than fifty people joined the in-person workshop held at the World Bank offices in D.C. The participants were from different countries. Researchers, program officers, development officers, and transportation professionals were in the room. They represented nonprofits, private companies, development organizations, multilateral banks, and public institutions.

VREF sponsored the event as part of the Informal and Shared Mobility in Low- and Middle Income Countries Program (ISM) . The primary objective of the ISM program is to contribute to strengthening equity and sustainability in urban transport by supporting research that creates new knowledge to inform stakeholders better, to govern, design or develop informal and shared mobility, thereby contributing to better access to goods and services for all