On the way to school: Co-producing pathways for evidence-based implementation of active mobility to school interventions

Active Mobility To and from School (AMTS) provides critical health and equity benefits, yet interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often face significant challenges in transitioning from pilot to routine practice. This paper documents the design of the On the Way to School (OWS) project, which is a South–South collaboration between Colombia and Mozambique. We address the translational gap in transport planning by prospectively applying the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to structure a transferable four-step co-design pathway. The pathway operationalises study creation through: (i) site-specific problem framing; (ii) mapping implementation determinants; (iii) co-producing governance and intervention logic; and (iv) defining a feasible measurement architecture. Co-design workshops with an international group of 23 stakeholders from different development sectors and disciplinary backgrounds revealed that while health is a primary researcher objective, road safety and personal security are the primary locally credible entry points for institutional engagement in Maputo and Marracuene. Key outputs include a tailored CFIR determinant map and a minimum-viable measurement architecture that links implementation outcomes, specifically acceptability, feasibility, and adaptability, to physical activity and well-being. By documenting how implementation determinants were negotiated across fragmented governance structures, this paper contributes a framework for transport practitioners in Sub-Saharan Africa. The OWS pathway moves beyond evaluating intervention effectiveness to studying the processes of delivery. It provides a technical blueprint for designing active travel interventions in urban and peri-urban resource-constrained contexts. • A four-step pathway guides AMTS implementation-research design in LMICs. • CFIR is applied for the first time to active mobility to school programmes. • Five design outputs bridge implementation science and transport research. • South–South collaboration enables context-responsive study co-production. • The study-creation process itself becomes an object of methodological inquiry.