Road Safety Forum - Implementing the Decade of Action in Africa

19 October 2010

The Forum is being undertaken under the auspices of the Monash Africa Centre which is a joint initiative of Monash University, Australia and the Research Directorate at Monash South Africa.

The Monash Africa Centre is located within the research portfolio at Monash South Africa under the leadership of the Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor: Research.

The Centre has a core focus on addressing vital issues related the development agenda in southern Africa in particular.
In collaboration with a number of key academic stakeholders from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania and around the world, and supported by a range of multinational and regional organisations, the Road Safety Forum aims to translate the principles of the UN Decade of Action into definitive action plans across four key areas:

1. Road Crash Surveillance and Monitoring Systems;
2. Road Safety Knowledge Capacity Building;
3. Road Safety Strategy Implementation/Evaluation Advisory Facility – including the domains of enforcement, education, engineering, emergency medical services;
4. Road Safety and the Industry Sector.

It is expected that the outcomes will result in actions that will translate into sustained reductions in the number of citizens killed and injured in the participant nations. To promote discussion at the Forum, a series of technical papers that cover the four key platform areas will be presented.

Background - Road Safety in Africa

Africa has among the highest road death and serious injury rates in the world with 32.2 deaths per 100,000 persons in the population in contrast to 10.3 deaths per 100,000 persons in high income countries.

Expressed another way, Africa has 2% of the worlds registered vehicles and 18% of all road crash-related deaths, while 52% of the worlds registered vehicles are in high income countries and yet these countries account for only 9.4% of global road deaths. (WHO, Global Status Report on Road Safety, 2009).

With increased economic development and rapid motorisation anticipated, significant increases in the number of people killed and injured in a ‘do-nothing’ scenario are predicted.

The economic (medical expenses, health) and social costs associated with road crashes are immense. It is notable that pedestrians and passengers comprise the majority of deaths, and this is arguably a consequence of access to limited socio-economic resources. It is also the case that road safety is a key development issue, both in terms of freight transport and its link to economic prosperity, as well as in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Given the multiple competing demands on the health system, moves to reduce the burden of injury and associated hospital treatment are urgently required.

It is accepted that given the lack of rehabilitation services, injury has lasting - and frequently disastrous - physical and economic consequences for the individual, their family, and their community. Hence reductions in injury have broad social and economic benefits.

Global recognition of the need for action

In February 2007, a Ministerial Round Table African Road Safety Conference was held in Accra, Ghana. The Accra Conference reaffirmed an earlier declaration by African Ministers responsible for Transport and Infrastructure (2005, Addis Ababa) where road safety was aligned with the Millennium Development Goals. The Outcome Document, known as the Accra Declaration, outlined a set of recommendations to encourage progress towards a targeted 50% reduction in road traffic fatalities by 2015.

Three events in 2009 further galvanised the need for action to address road safety in globally and in Africa. To promote road safety in the coming decade, the Commission for Global Road Safety with the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Automobile Association of Tanzania launched the Make Roads Safe Campaign in Africa. The aim of the meeting was to highlight road safety concerns on the African continent and to encourage participation in the ‘Decade of Action’. In the days immediately following the Make Roads Safe Summit, UNECA held a Road Safety Seminar to review progress since the acceptance of the Accra Declaration. The meeting reinforced the recommendations of the Accra Declaration and provided a framework to move towards the stated goal of halving of fatalities by 2015.

The Commission for Global Road Safety, as part of its ongoing Make Roads Safe initiative was influential in having the Decade of Action considered by the United Nations. The First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow in November 2009 culminated in the adoption of the Moscow Declaration, which resolves to encourage the development and adoption of best practice road safety knowledge and systems, and invites the United Nations General Assembly to declare the decade 2011–2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety.
In May 2010, at the 64th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Resolution 64/255 – Improving Road Safety, was adopted by Member States. This action by the General Assembly followed the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Moscow (19-20 November 2009). Following earlier meetings, the ideal of the Resolution was to declare the period 2011–2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety, with a ‘goal to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels’.

The Resolution itself makes specific reference to the high social and economic cost of road crashes and notes that these impacts are particularly pressing in low and middle income countries. It was recognised that these impacts are such that a failure to address road crashes may impact upon the sustainable development of countries and hinder progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

The Resolution reaffirmedthe need to further strengthen international cooperation and knowledge-sharing in road safety, taking into account the needs of low- and middle-income countries, and acknowledgedthat multilateral technical and financial assistance in support of capacity-building for enhancing road safety is required.

The Resolution calleduponMember States to implement road safety activities across a range of domains and invitesMember States to set their own national road traffic casualty reduction targets to be achieved by the end of the Decade.