YOURS is proud to have one its active young spokespeople for road safety Mr Brian Mwebaze from Uganda report back from the 2nd African Road Safety Conference. Brian has written his own report from his own opinion and YOURS gives Brian the opportunity to provide his analysis from a young person’s perspective.
Please note that opinions expressed in this article are that of Mr Brian Mwebaze (who is a national of Uganda), more information can be found at his blog. YOURS gives young people an open platform to debate their opinions.
Was It A Wastage Of $$$$? My Analysis Of The 2nd African Conference On Road Safety-Ethiopia
We are all used to this, aren’t we? Decision makers attending to conferences half way only to appear on the last minute to sign for their perdiems, poor participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders, domination of discussions on key topics, and a consistent wave of general unseriousness? That was typical of International African Conferences>>>>Am not kidding by the way, we have records that were set by some African Leaders in 1978 during the formation of Alma Alta Declaration on Primary Health Care! As some news paper (which ofcourse Iam not gonna write here) later reported, ‘Participants from Africa were a disgrace to the conference, sometimes daring to appear with their spouses in the conference hall’. We know that Africans did not understand the rules of the game as regards the primary health care approach…and you know the story concerning the public health arena in Africa.
But that was years ago…and here is my analysis of the 2nd African Conference on Road Safety…
There was a sheer brilliance of representation of all the key stakeholders that are involved in the game of road safety in Africa. As we know it, Health Education x Healthy public policy=Health Promotion! I have this feeling that the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Ethiopian government who were organizing this conference had some good public health brains on their steering committee! Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP); Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF); Government of Ethiopia; and International Road Federation (IRF) in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the World Bank were also part of the team.
The second African Road Safety Conference kicked off on Wednesday 9th Nov 2011 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia at the UN-ECA conference center with an aim of examining and validating African Road Safety Action Plan being devised for the coming decade following the UN recommendation on the first conference held in February 2007 in Accra. It should be noticed that participants were drawn from nearly all African countries and International Road Federation were deliberating on the five pillar issues of the coming decade road safety action plan namely road safety management, safer road and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and post crash responses.
Other participants came from Victims of Road Accidents,NGOs and most importantly Youth Associations-and guess what? The African Youth Network on Road Safety had 3 representatives by the end of the conference namely: Aliou (Niger) Michael (Kenya) and Myself (Uganda). Wait a minute, somebody is gonna question the gender balance, but nope, we had other young people from other platforms too. Like all the others, we never sat down looking at the ‘older’ generation speak! I delivered the speech on behalf of the African Youth Network On Road Safety that urged respective African states to think about involving their youths as best as they can (My speech appears on this blog and the final report of the conference)
While at the opening of the conference, Ethiopian President, Girma Woldegiorgis (I really liked him and his name..ooopss..sounds greek) pointed out that Ethiopia has adopted the road safety action plan and is working to reduce road damage. Ethiopia’s President Girma Wolde Giorgis welcomed the African Action Plan and said it would assist in “promoting awareness of the huge economic losses and human suffering caused by road crashes.” Ethiopia, said the President, has developed a 10-year strategic plan….talk about political will! Arguably, Ethiopia had the best high way roads among the African Countries I have visited, well S.Africa too has some cool stuff!
Head of National Road Safety of Ethiopia, Abebe Asrat for his part said Ethiopia has managed to reduce road crash deaths recently and he promised to the successful implementation of African Roads Safety Action Plan considering that globally 3,300 people die every day due to road accidents.
Mr. Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said that road crashes are the second leading cause of death for the 5-44 age group in African countries and “they exact a heavy toll on African economies.” It is not that this is a new statement, but I liked the tone he had in his voice when he stated the last statement. In simple terms, he was examining the DALYs and QALYs-the economic implications of road accidents. He underscored that the high crash incidence is attributed to “poor road networks, inadequate road signage, limited knowledge on road safety, poorly enforced legislation and the poor emergency-preparedness by medical facilities.” “In Ethiopia, a 2008 estimate of economic costs (attributed to road crashes) conservatively put this at close to $80 million per year,” he said. The Road Safety Conference is one in a series of similar forums dating back to 1997 and organized by the ECA. Hamdok noted that in this regard, recent declarations by Ministers have helped to push for national attention and to mitigate the “growing tragedy of deaths and injuries on African roads.”
The outcomes of such meetings have been incorporated in the Global Road Safety Action Plan. In addition, efforts by NGOs and the private sector have contributed to increased road safety awareness. “We strongly believe that we have to act together to develop sustainable policies and action points if we are to realise a safe traffic environment for our continent,” he said. “Through the African Action Plan, Africa will have a voice.” The only thing I could request from Mr Hamdok was continued support and implementation of the programme of action.
Testimonies by road crash victims from Ethiopia and South Africa’s Maputo Corridor brought home the gut-wrenching impact of the carnage and the reality of the statistics shared by Hamdok: Globally more than 1.2 million people die in road crashes around the world and 65 per cent of these deaths are pedestrians who do not own cars. Much worse, 35 percent of pedestrian deaths are innocent children. The majority of these deaths – about 70 per cent – occur in developing countries. Testimonies by Vitale Sandra had me almost cry (It never happens to me always)..but she talked about the whole idea of loosing her 25 year old son thanks to speeding and no mandatory seat belts in Ethiopia by then. She was like talking to me! Hamdok lauded the efforts made by the private sector in road safety campaigns and said: “The private sector has the capacity to greatly extend our efforts to serve communities, more especially young people, for this is what secures our future as the human race. The African Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020 – is a comprehensive document containing five broad issues that will form the basis for the outcomes of the discussions: Road Safety Management; Safer Roads and Mobility; Safer Vehicles; Safer Road Users; Post-crash Response.
While I can confidently say, the out come document was outstanding and practically we uploaded it since our voices were very much in it, I nevertheless do not stand firm to answer the question of whether it was a wastage of resources. For me, it will be so, if there is no action that is taken in this decade and if the accidents are not reduced by ahalf as we hope.
But I also wish to see one more thing…
From the youth perspective, the best way is to involve young people as possible. I raised the issue of having young people on national safety working groups and I was told that it was the responsibility of the states to do this but I felt that it would have given another dimension all the same. However I was impressed by the recognition of the African Youth Network on Road Safety-un umbrella of over 30 youth organisations operating in road safety in Africa. I just hope the next conference in Luanda at the end of this month, our ministers will form an African Transport Ministerial Council on Road Safety to show solidarity for the decade. I would wish that on this same Council, we have atleast 2 youth representatives boy and girl (for french and english speaking countries). Salutations to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa for making it possible for me to attend.