Princess-Ekwi Ajide, Abuja
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, member states, development partners and civil society actors, have agreed on the implementation of an updated Regional Action Plan for road safety activities in the region from the first quarter of 2023.
The agreement was reached during a two day regional sensitization workshop on the implementation of the new ECOWAS Road Safety Policy, Action Plan and Charter held in Accra, Ghana.
The workshop was organized by ECOWAS through the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization.
The new ECOWAS Road Safety Policy Charter, Action Plan, and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework prepared under the Regional Transport Governance for West Africa Technical Assistance Project with financing support from EU, was approved at the 60th summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government on 12th December, 2021.
In his welcome address, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalization, Mr. Sediko Douka whose speech was read by the Acting Director, Transport, Mr. Chris Appiah, told participants to the workshop that the main objective of the workshop was to seek the buy-in of member states, stakeholders and partners on the newly approved Regional Road Safety Policy, Charter, and its Action Plan.
He explained that the intention was to bring all hands-on deck so as to fight together and better coordinate actions towards the reduction of fatalities on national and regional road corridors noting that it is also intended to provide ECOWAS’ response to the United Nations Second Decade of Action for Road Safety with the global goal to reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by at least 50 per cent by 2030 by agreeing on workable modalities to satisfactorily accomplish the interventions in the Action Plan within the stated timeframes, taking due cognisance of the region’s strengths, opportunities, and any envisaged threats.
Mr. Douka, opined that to ensure alignment and synergies with continental and international initiatives, the Workshop will also benefit from presentations from the African Union Commission, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the SSATP of the World Bank.”
In his remarks, the Minister of Transport, Republic of Ghana, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah recalled efforts made to prepare a harmonized Road Safety Policy and Charter for the sub-region noting that an opportunity to collectively agree on the implementation timelines of the Action Plan to operationalise the Policy and Charter as well as agree on modalities for the implementation by all the stakeholders is being presented by stakeholders through the workshop.
According to him, Ghana, is being guided by the fact that safer and efficient mobility systems have direct impact on their national economies so, they remain committed to the promotion of road safety in the country.
He said, they have strengthened the capacity of their lead road safety agency with enhanced mandate to ensure institutional compliance to road safety standards with a provision to sanction non-compliance and they are also reviewing their Road Traffic Act and Regulations to reflect changes and emerging trends in the road transport industry.
The Minister added that Ghana has developed its third strategy for road safety management dubbed the National Road Safety Strategy IV (2021- 2030) which is in line with the UN second secade of Action for Road Safety with the goal of reducing fatalities and injuries by 50% by the end of 2030.
The workshop broke into technical sessions where contents of the policy, charter and action plans were thoroughly deliberated and some key areas touched incuded actions to regulate the age of used imported vehicles, use of motorbikes and 3-wheelers, safety responsive harmonized road design standards, sustainable funding for road safety activities, harmonization of regional driver training, road crash data harmonization among others.
