ROAD SAFETY LEGISLATIVE ACTION PLAN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE THE PARLIAMENTARY FORUM FOR ROAD SAFETY (PAFROS)

Road safety is a significant and growing burden in Uganda, with the daily press reporting ever increasing numbers of deaths on the country’s roads. However, the issue is not getting sufficient attention and traction. One of the key actors in generating action is the Legislature (Parliament).

OBJECTIVE OF THE INTERVENTION:

The Road Safety Legislative Action plan is an advocacy intervention developed to address the growing concern in Uganda. With a gradual increase in fatalities and injuries across the road user spectrum further conceptualization of the problem pointed to the policy cycle and whether it was conducive to support and effect a change in the country road safety status.

The project action plan is based on a gap analysis of the current traffic and road safety act together with other policy, legislation and regulations coupled with best practice across the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety Pillars.

Following the reconstitution of the Parliamentary Forum on Road Safety (PAFROS) in the 10th Parliament, SWRW began engagement with Members of the Parliament as one of the key actors with the capacity to generate the much needed action in the critical areas of policy development, enactment, implementation and evaluation.

The legislative action plan has set out to address road safety management in a sustainable and institutionalised manner addressing challenges through stimulating debate in parliament and society on the urgent nature of action on road safety, the institutional weaknesses with road safety in the country especially the lack of a lead agency on road safety, the lack of requisite funding needed for road safety, awareness generation, and catalyze the action to combat this growing epidemic.

Key items for special attention include: personnel capacity, mandate and funding but will also address direct road safety action influencing not only government agencies but also the development partners supporting the sector.

The project objective is to over a period of time lay a strong legislative foundation and support to improve road safety in Uganda through reduction of road traffic crash occurrence in line with the recommendations of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) and the SDG.

Supported by

On December 13th 2017 SWRW conducted an induction workshop for members of Parliament which was very well attended and very informative setting the tone for the year to come and the purpose of the partnership between SWRW and the World Bank as well as highlighting the project deliverables and expectations.

Consultants working with SWRW were engaged by the World Bank between February and March 2018 and the project was launched at the Parliament of Uganda on the 18th May 2018 which kicked off 3 of the five project components. The Road Safety Audit of the NERAMP corridor began in March as did the Monitoring and Evaluation activities.

The project in this first phase aims to meet at least 60% of outputs and complete any legislative action under phase 2.

This has been a pilot phase and whereas a significant number of achievements are registered there have been many expected and unexpected challenges and many lessons learnt. Most critical outcome is that we have a number of legislators today that can speak effectively on the structure and scale of the problem as well as solutions and best practice, engaging and calling on various Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to improve their road safety delivery. The legislators have embarked on a legislative journey with enthusiasm and the Government officials that have been engaged feel a sense of promise and support.