Ghana Tops Road Safety Ranking

The Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) has ranked Ghana first among 23 African countries for implementing most road safety action plans developed within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety initiative.

According the ECA, Ghana’s ranking meant that the country had fully implemented the mid-term of the decade-long global initiative with all of its commitments within the context of its national blueprint, the National Road Safety Strategy III (2011-2020) and the African Road Safety Action plans.

The Mid-term review report which was released in Addis Ababa recently sought to assess the extent to which African countries have implemented the African road safety Action Plan since its adoption in 2011.

“Though progress is being made, performance of the Plan based on 5 pillars (road safety management; mobility; vehicle; road users; and post-crash response) has been varying with some countries performing well in some pillars but failing in others, a statement stated.

About 40 percent of countries are in the process of implementing road safety management activities, with more than about 30 percent yet to take significant action to harmonise data formats and use international standards.

Ghana was praised for its efforts at developing a national strategy and the strong coordinating profile of its lead agency the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC)   that had led to the avoidance of duplication and waste of scarce resources.