The problem

According to the latest WHO report (2018), Africa is the worst performing Continent in road safety and, year after year, the situation worsens. The rate of road traffic deaths is 26.6 per 100,000 population. In addition, Africa has the highest proportion of pedestrian and cyclist mortalities with 44% of deaths. To reverse this trend, it is essential to bear in mind that road safety problems in Africa should be preferably considered in their own context, as well as the proposed solutions to address them.

Starting from this general lack of capacity and expertise in addressing these aspects, we have proposed to create a network initially represented by two universities and/or research centers from Cameroon and Nigeria. This network had four key goals: capacity building, information sharing, research collaboration and public policy engagement.

Our approach

The general objective was to create the Africa Road Safety Academic Network (ARSANet), initially represented by two universities: the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Des Travaux Publics, located in Cameroon, and Lagos State University, in Nigeria. This project has focused on carrying out the first ARSANet event: a training course which has concentrated on “train-the-trainer” activities for universities and/or research centers in Cameroon and Nigeria.

In this way, the main idea was to provide participants (future trainers) with the tools and skills necessary to prepare their own road safety courses. In addition, participants in this network were expected to share the good practices that have been carried out in their country regarding road safety policies and programs.

Partners

Ecole Nationale Supérieure Des Travaux Publics (Enstp) (Cameroon), Lagos State University (Lasu) (Nigeria)