The G8 must act to ensure new road development does not lead to more deaths on African roads, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned in advance of an African road safety conference today (31).
Archbishop Tutu said “Road deaths and injuries are becoming a new health emergency for Africa. The human and economic cost is growing. I call on the leaders of the G8 to heed the request of African transport and health ministers, to ensure that safety is at the heart of international road investment. Protecting the poorest and most vulnerable road users in our communities must be the first priority.”
Archbishop Tutu is opening the Make Roads Safe Africa conference, in Cape Town, which is being attended by senior UN and World Bank officials and road safety campaigners from across the continent and the world.
The conference will also see the announcement of a new African Road Assessment Programme, based on a pilot study run in South Africa, which aims to measure the safety of African roads. John Dawson, Chairman of the International Road Assessment Programme said: "We need to identify the high risk roads across Africa. We must steer aid towards the roads where people are dying in large numbers just because there are no footpaths, safe crossing points or safety fences”.
Africa has the highest road death rate per population in the world, and has so far only avoided a catastrophic explosion of road deaths because of relatively low motorisation and an under-developed road network.
Yet the conference will hear that international efforts to foster African economic growth through massive new road building projects could actually make the situation worse – unless road safety is systematically included in the process. The G8 in 2005 under the UK Presidency approved an initial $1.2 billion for new roads in Africa, but only $20 million has been allocated to road safety measures, well below the World Bank’s own recommended guidelines.
Alarmed by the potential for a catastrophe on African roads, African health and transport ministers issued the Accra Declaration in February, calling on the G8 to ensure that road safety is the first priority in roads built with international donor money.
The critical situation of Africa’s roads is revealed by the Make Roads Safe campaign:
- Africa has the highest road death rate per population in the world – 28.3 people per 100,000 population are killed in road crashes (Western Europe’s average is 11 per 100,000);
- Africa’s road deaths, currently almost 200,000 a year, are predicted to rise by at least 80% by 2020;
- Economically active young people are most at risk of road injury – in Kenya at least 75% of injuries involve young family breadwinners;
- Road crashes account for half of the injury-related deaths of African children;
- Road crashes are estimated to cost African countries between 1-3% of their Gross National Product (GNP).
David Njoroge, Member for Africa of the Commission for Global Road Safety, said:
“This autumn in Tanzania the G8’s Infrastructure Consortium for Africa will bring together international donors and officials from the UN, African Development Bank and African governments to review progress in its road projects. This meeting must address road safety and ensure that the needs, wishes and safety of local communities are respected as the first priority”.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- The Make Roads Safe Africa conference will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 31st May 2007, organised by the Make Roads Safe campaign and the AA of South Africa. The Make Roads Safe campaign is also supported in South Africa by road safety NGOs Drive Alive and SADD;
- The Accra Declaration, signed by African health and transport ministers, in Ghana in February 2007: “Calls upon the G8 Summit, in Heligendamm, Germany, in June 2007, to: recognize the urgent need to improve road safety in Africa, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa; systematically include road safety in the work of the Africa Infrastructure Consortium; the Sub Saharan Africa Transport Policy Programme; and in the development assistance programmes of the G8 nations to ensure that new and improved roads in Africa do not increase road traffic death and injuries;”
- The Make Roads Safe campaign has been established to call for international action to tackle road deaths in low and middle income countries. The campaign, supported by an international coalition of organisations, has launched a global petition to the United Nations calling for:
- A €300 million Action Plan for global road safety;
- A minimum 10% road safety element in all road programmes which are funded with development money;
- A UN ministerial conference to address the global road safety crisis.
- The Consultation Document "An African Road Assessment Programme" is available for download on www.irap.net.