Green Light Initiative Calls on African Governments to Prioritise Road Safety

A non-governmental organisation (NGO), GreenLight Initiative, has adopted the Africa Call for Action for African governments to prioritise road safety issues.

Green Light Initiative joins organisations around the world to participate in the eighth Global Meeting of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) advocating for road safety and road victims taking place in San Salvador, El Salvador from March 6-10, 2023.


The theme for the global meeting is ‘Rethinking Road Safety: Mobility for people and planet.’ The meeting bring together 214 participants from 61 countries.

During the chapter meeting, Green Light Initiative alongside other road safety NGOs in Africa adopted the Africa Call for Action.

The call for action calls on all governments in Africa to prioritise road safety, demonstrate strategic leadership, and ascertain commitment by planning, funding and full implementation of road safety interventions through political ownership, positioning road safety as a national priority, recognising that it is an integral part of the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and publicly articulating a long-term measurable vision.

Founder and Executive Director for Green Light Initiative, Simon Obi, in a statement, said components of the call for action include evidence-based actions that put people, especially pedestrians and vulnerable road users, investment in road safety and civil society involvement in decision-making processes.

Obi said the Africa Call for Action is in line with the United Nations Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. It calls for the reduction of road deaths and injuries by 50 per cent by 2030.

He noted that Nigerian roads are estimated to account for 21.4 deaths per 100,000 population, according to the global status report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is for this reason that GreenLight Initiative calls for the implementation of the call for action in Nigeria as adopted by the Africa Regional Chapter of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety.

He said the implementation of this call to action will reduce deaths and serious injury on Nigerian roads as well as stimulate the achievement of the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 3.6, 11.2, and 13.

​Source: Guardian