Radical improvement of road safety in low and medium income countries in Africa

Over 650 road deaths per day occur on African roads and unless measures are taken, road crashes in Africa are projected to increase by 68% over the next decade. African road traffic death rates are the highest globally and more than four times higher than the European average.

Building upon the work and activities already undertaken at EU level in this area, including the Safer Africa project and in line with the recommendations of the Road Safety Cluster of the African-EU Transport Task Force adopted in 2020, R&I is needed to create a strong analytical base and to develop and assess, with local partners, the implementation of small scale system pilots and its various components, at city, regional, national and continent level. Actions should contain the sharing of knowledge and best practice, data analysis, infrastructure for effectively reducing road deaths in Africa.

To address this challenge, proposals should address all of the following:

• In-depth road accident investigations should be carried out at least in selected areas/countries to be able to find evidence of the underlying contributing factors behind accidents, whether related to the road user, vehicle, traffic environment or the traffic system.
• develop an innovative approach to promote the Safe System approach in selected African countries, enabling the exchange of data, methodologies, training, knowledge and best practice with particular focus on leading road safety agencies, traffic system “owners” such as road authorities, the police, regulating and certifying agencies to support the preparation of their road safety strategies and targets.
• Analyse the most appropriate road safety assessment methodologies and traffic management systems, as well as protection principles for the vulnerable road users and vehicle occupants, and define criteria for measuring future progress. Moreover, identify requirements for skills development and training of staff, and research and innovation needs, with a view to quick deployment of suitable solutions.
• design, develop and implement a series of small scale pilot demonstration projects to test the implementation of a safe system approach at different levels (national, regional, city), involving different local stakeholders (e.g. civil society organisations such as citizens’ associations, and non-governmental organisations), local government bodies and institutions as well as private companies.
• carry out an evaluation and assessment of the pilot demonstration projects that includes feedback from local actors, national and international stakeholders gathered through specific participatory workshops.
• Define guidelines detailing requirements and propose recommendations from the small scale pilot demonstrations useful for the implementation of a safe system approach to be up-scaled for the African continent (capacity building).

A balanced participation of European and African partners in these activities is expected, also with the aim of reinforcing endogenous African capabilities, and will be taken into account in the evaluation of proposals. Multinational international cooperation with relevant third countries is encouraged in order to leverage resources and impact.

Typically, projects should have a duration of 36 to 48 months. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts or durations.

Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.