2022 Year in Review: Behind the Numbers
Slowing Down Drivers and Preventing Deaths on Ghana's Roads
More than 90% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have 60% of the world's vehicles. Speeding makes crashes more likely and more deadly. Vital Strategies has helped Accra make fast progress to slow drivers down:
34%
decrease in speeding on Accra's roads from 2019 to 2022.
How did Accra get more of its drivers to slow down?
Since 2015, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety has worked in Ghana and around the world to implement proven strategies to reduce road traffic crashes. Vital Strategies’ Road Safety program plays three main roles in the initiative: coordinating among the partners and local and national governments; strengthening cities’ capacities in road crash surveillance; and supporting strategic communication efforts to shift driver behavior and change narratives about road safety. Vital Strategies has worked with Accra and Kumasi, Ghana’s largest cities, and with the national government to reduce road crashes.
Test Heading
“Schoolgirl: It’s 30 for a Reason” was the first campaign airing in Ghana with the aim of reducing speeding on roads. When drivers in Accra, where it aired, were asked if the campaign made them less likely to speed, 60% said it made them much more likely not to speed, and 30% said it made them somewhat more likely not to speed.
To reinforce the campaigns, Accra also enhanced its enforcement by police. Here, the Ghana Police Service receive six new TruCAM II speed detection devices from the city’s mayor to help with enforcement.
Vital Strategies plays a key coordination role across the road safety initiative, forging productive relationships between the international partners and local governments, and supporting recruitment and co-management of embedded staff in each partner location.
“
Although our dear city has recorded a slight decrease in deaths, we cannot rest until our roads are safe for all users. This decrease must stir us up to double our efforts in our various interventions leaning against the confidence that we can achieve so much by putting in more effort.”
Elizabeth Sackey
Mayor of Accra
“
In Ghana, we knew we had to work at both the local and national level to make the greatest difference and to slow drivers down. We worked with local partners to coordinate an anti-speeding campaign, paired with enforcement. The results have been great, and we are optimistic that this drop in speeding rates will ultimately save lives."
Asmeret Nigus
Vital Strategies
What does Vital Strategies do?
Vital’s technical assistance as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety supports city and national partners to: strengthen road crash surveillance systems; develop city-specific road safety reports to inform and monitor implementation of interventions; develop and implement work plans; and create strategic communication to improve road safety.
Vital’s coordination team connects the initiative’s multiple global partners, governments, and city agencies to align efforts in infrastructure, enforcement, communication and surveillance.
In partnership with the cities and countries, Vital supports the creation, testing, production and implementation of mass media campaigns designed to change risky driver behaviors, shift narratives and social norms, and promote policy changes.
Vital Strategies supports recruitment of staff who are then embedded in key government agencies such as roads agencies, traffic police, and city mayors’ offices, and co-manages the staff with the cities.
We provide technical expertise.
Vital’s technical assistance as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety supports city and national partners to: strengthen road crash surveillance systems; develop city-specific road safety reports to inform and monitor implementation of interventions; develop and implement work plans; and create strategic communication to improve road safety.
We serve as the main liaison across the initiative.
Vital’s coordination team connects the initiative’s multiple global partners, governments, and city agencies to align efforts in infrastructure, enforcement, communication and surveillance.
We create media campaigns.
In partnership with the cities and countries, Vital supports the creation, testing, production and implementation of mass media campaigns designed to change risky driver behaviors, shift narratives and social norms, and promote policy changes.
We co-manage embedded staff with governments.
Vital Strategies supports recruitment of staff who are then embedded in key government agencies such as roads agencies, traffic police, and city mayors’ offices, and co-manages the staff with the cities.
Challenges and Solutions
How do we understand and track how many people are dying in road traffic crashes when they have traditionally been underreported?
Vital’s surveillance team worked with major trauma hospitals in the city to access road traffic injury and fatality case data and linked it to police crash data to provide a basis for re-estimating road traffic mortality.
How could the city of Accra coordinate and align across departments and sectors without a history of doing so?
Vital's coordination team guided the formation of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s Road Safety Council in collaboration with the mayor’s office. This council brings together senior-level directors of road safety agencies for quarterly strategic meetings aimed at addressing road safety issues in Accra.
How did we scale the work in Accra to the national level?
Our team ensured that stakeholders at both city and national levels were engaged throughout every step of the campaign development process, including research, design and evaluation of the campaign materials.
Our Impact
A 77% speeding rate in Accra in March 2019, decreased to 47% in November 2020. The rate has increased slightly since then, to 51% in May 2022, reinforcing the need for continued communication and enforcement efforts (observational data collected by the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit).
To increase impact, Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city, also developed and aired an anti-speeding campaign featuring James Musah, who lost his wife in a fatal bus crash. And “Surgeon,” a campaign featuring a surgeon in an operating room urging drivers to slow down, aired nationally.
Lasting Results
Mass media campaigns paired with enforcement have been shown to change road user behavior in Ghana and many of the 30 cities Vital works in on road safety, but the campaigns need to be regularly implemented to sustain improved behaviors. Government commitment, sustainable funding and inclusion of mass media campaigns within long-term road safety strategies are key to sustainability.
Get Our Latest Public Health News
Join our email list and be the first to know about our public health news, publications and interviews with experts.