LEGISLATIVE ACTION PLAN

In 2017, Safe Way Right Way constituted the Parliamentary Forum on Road Safety in order leverage support and commitment from the law makers in addressing some of the road safety issues. Members of Parliament have the opportunity and responsibility to adopt policy, legislation and budgets that will secure lasting reductions of death and injury on roads and can play a crucial role in advancing road safety in several ways:

    • Help to formulate effective national road safety policies and legislation
    • Support adequate levels of funding for road injury prevention
    • Promote accountability of government and public authorities on their road safety commitments
    • Engage with and represent the community to help make roads safe for all those they were elected to serve.

One of the major outputs and achievements of the forum is the development of a Legislative Action plan.  The plan was based on a gap analysis of the then Traffic and Road Safety Act, the country profile in the WHO Global Road Safety Status Report 2015, as well as best practice with regards to road design, construction, and maintenance.

The Action Plan seeks to address legislative action in policy development, enactment, implementation and evaluation. The Legislative actions are categorized under the UN Decade of Action pillars for road safety and address road safety management in a sustainable and institutionalized manner through stimulating debate in parliament and society on:

    • The urgent nature of action on road safety
    • Institutional weaknesses with road safety, especially the lack of a lead agency on road safety
    • Lack of requisite funding needed for road safety
    • Awareness generation

The legislative action plan uses a phased approach to enable effective tracking and monitoring of progress

PHASE ONE:

DESIRABLE INTERMEDIARY OUTCOMES 

  1. Implementation of the National Road Safety Policy and Strategic Plan
  2. Revision of the Traffic and Road Safety Act
  3. Strengthening of the National Road Safety Council / Establishment of a National Road Safety Authority
  4. Strengthened enforcement of already existing laws and regulations on road Safety
  5. Advocate for external road safety audits of national roads

PHASE TWO:

DESIRABLE INTERMEDIARY OUTCOMES 

  1. Establishment of a National Road Safety Authority
  2. Enactment of improved road safety policy, laws and regulations
  3. Five-year legislative action plan that will support /align with the National Road Safety Authority, National Road safety Strategic Plan and the National Road Safety Policy
  4. Stringent enforcement of regulations for commercial vehicles especially passenger service vehicles

PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY 

Public policy development, implementation and assessment is an ongoing process and it is hoped that this project will set the tone for the assessment of road safety improvements and continued policy development and implementation which will in turn see the introduction of best practice in Uganda’s road safety framework. Evaluation processes and reports will provide detailed information on wins and challenges which will be used to add value to future legislative action.