Paper details

Paper authors	Alexandre Costa Nascimento
In panel on	Frugal innovations and technology: aiding self-reliance and resilience amongst crisis affected groups?
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

The bicycle is a low-complexity technological artifact that serves as an adequate and efficient means of transport for people and goods; it is a vector of economic and social development in large parts of the world. Simple to manufacture, easy to maintain, low cost, no fuel, non-polluting and easy to use even in adverse conditions it increases mobility and thus productivity in rural as well as in urban contexts.
The bicycle significantly improves income generation, access to work, education, health and other public infrastructure, distribution of goods and services by and to populations in poor areas. Large scale adaptation of bicycles reduces inequality and strengthens vulnerable groups within the socioeconomic reality of non-industrialized and poor countries. Technical simplicity, independence of infrastructure and supplies, spatial distribution, and direct control by owners, are factors that increase the resilience of disaster-stricken populations by providing emergency transport capacity directly on the spot where other means fail or are too expensive.
How can this potential be used for disaster risk reduction and catastrophe prevention? How in emergency situations or crisis contexts? How can it be used in emergency supply chains? How can the process of reconstruction benefit from this type of mobility?
Key-words: bicycle, transport, mobility, África, frugal technology.

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