Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety: A new impetus thanks to the 2023-2026 partnership

Following the success of the first partnership with Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety (the Alliance) from 2020 to 2023, a new partnership was formed in June 2023 for another three years. Based on the results obtained in the first phase of the partnership, the Alliance committed to targeting new local communities in Africa and to advocating for evidence-based road safety actions, as well as intensive communication and campaigns, awareness-raising and tools and capacity building training in the given regions.

These efforts should help to:

• Reach out directly to more than 90,000 people thanks to the programs, subsidies and campaigns of the Alliance.
• Have an indirect effect on more than 30 million people thanks to the campaign’s messages.

To reach its objectives, the Alliance is proposing a number of activities and tools as part of the new partnership:

• An annual mapping exercise to maximize the current road safety initiatives in the region.
• The implementation of a system to monitor the Alliance’s members and of a reporting platform to document the members’ actions and adapt the programs more effectively.
• Improvement and maintenance of the Africa Chapter’s mini website.
• Advocacy campaigns to mobilize communities and influence decision-makers in Africa in at least eight countries each year.
• One regional meeting of the Africa region members.
• An Incubator program to promote the implementation of 30 km/h speed limit zones using the Alliance accountability Toolkit and peer to peer mentor engagement.

By implementing these measures, the aim of  Alliance is to:

• Reach out to and empower more than 100 NGOs in Africa by mentoring them and making sure that actions can be made systematic and evidence-based.
• Organize 10 capacity-development sessions intended to benefit more than 150 members of the Alliance in Africa.
• Continue mentoring through the Incubator with four NGOs selected in years 1 and 2 and with four more for a one-year subsidy to perform actions in the field and peer learning (year 3).
• Grant 45 subsidies to support community campaigns and organize a regional meeting.

Focus on two exemplary actions

Animating the network of Africa’s road safety legislators

On September 28, 2023, 39 people attended an online dialogue session between NGOs and parliamentarians. The aim of this session was to continue discussions on the road safety action deployment schedule, to capitalize on current achievements and to explore new strategies to step up cooperation between road safety NGOs and the African legislators. Bringing together these players in a virtual space clearly shows there is a real commitment to fast-tracking actions in order to obtain better results in terms of road safety in the region.

Walk21 conference in Kigali

At the Walk21 conference in Kigali in October 2023, one of the workshops focused specifically on the application of research results implemented through NGOs and on the use of the Alliance Accountability Toolkit. The objective was to advocate for the introduction of 30 km/h speed zones in African cities. The Alliance Accountability Toolkit is a set of practical tools that NGOs can use to make governments aware of their responsibilities in terms of safety toward all road users. It proposes practical steps to halve the number of road crash victims by 2030, in keeping with the global plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety. During the workshop, tangible actions were also proposed to transform the urban paradigm, promote equity and meet climate targets, while attracting investments to develop an urban environment propitious to walking.

Three main action focuses

Networking and sharing

As part of this focus, the Alliance is promoting improved cohesion and a stricter alignment between the different NGOs in Africa. To support this objective, Global Alliance worked to increase the database of NGO members, providing resources and organizing regional meetings.

Impacts:

• 91 NGOs members of Global Alliance in 32 countries in the Africa zone
• 30 participants from 25 countries in the regional meeting of the Africa zone

Advocating

The Alliance harmonizes the messages of African NGOs through campaigns that mobilize and include the most relevant stakeholders.

Impacts:

• 1 communication campaign UN Global Road Safety Week #RethinkMobility
• 16 grants in 14 countries of the Africa zone
• 108,000 people directly impacted by the campaign
• 33 million people impacted by the media and social networks

Capacity development

The aim of this focus is to fill in the NGOs’ knowledge gaps so that they may more effectively influence the policies for rolling out governmental road safety actions. The Alliance has designed and held a number of capacity development sessions such as training courses, the deployment of the incubation program and LEARN^* workshops.

Impacts:

• 4 training courses attended by 123 participants from 24 countries of the Africa zone
• 2 workshops for the LEARN^* program with 34 participants representing 2 countries of the Africa zone

^* The LEARN (Learn, Examine, Act, Replicate, Network) program was created by the International Road Federation (IRF) and Global Alliance. It was successfully tested in six African countries (Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia). The objective is to improve knowledge, competencies and actions as regards road safety data through a multi-stakeholder approach. LEARN strengthens the competencies of a select group of road safety professionals and stakeholders through practical and interactive training workshops in Low- or Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).