Pedaling Prosperity: How Mobility Transforms Community-Led Development

In many rural communities around the world, lack of transportation is a fundamental barrier to progress. More than 1 billion people worldwide face mobility poverty—a lack of reliable, affordable transportation that prevents them from accessing education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. This hidden crisis perpetuates systemic inequities, particularly for women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by long travel distances and unsafe routes.

World Bicycle Relief is a nonprofit social enterprise using a market-based approach to address mobility poverty at scale. By blending philanthropy with sustainable business models, WBR delivers purpose-designed bicycles to the communities that need them most while developing local supply chains, trained mechanics, and last-mile distribution networks that create long-term impact.

This session will explore how bicycles serve as an engine for sustainable development in rural communities, fostering equitable access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity. We will examine WBR’s place-based initiatives in Africa and Latin America, where local leadership, mechanics, and entrepreneurs ensure long-term sustainability. Attendees will engage in discussions on how localized mobility interventions can be scaled and integrated into mainstream development strategies to create lasting impact.