State of pedestrian road safety in Uganda: are interventions failing or absent?

Abstract

16 Introduction: In Uganda, pedestrians are the most frequently injured category of road 17 users, accounting for 40% of road traffic fatalities and 25% of serious injuries every year. There 18 is paucity of information on existing pedestrian interventions and challenges that affect their 19 implementation in Uganda. In this paper, we ascertain the state of pedestrian road safety 20 interventions in Uganda and explore the challenges in the process of design, implementation, 21 monitoring and evaluation of existing interventions. 22 Methods: We conducted a qualitative study that started with a desk review of existing 23 policy documents, police statistics, media reports, non-governmental organization reports, and 24 published research. We supplemented the review with 14 key informant interviews and 4 focus 25 group discussions. Participants were drawn from various agencies and stakeholders 26 responsible for road safety. In total, we collected and synthesized data on the design, 27 implementation, and evaluation of pedestrian safety interventions from 25 documents. Data 28 were analyzed using qualitative thematic content analysis. 29 Results: The National Road Safety Council within the Ministry of Works and Transport is 30 the lead agency tasked with coordinating all road safety efforts, while the Uganda Police is 31 largely engaged in enforcing pedestrian safety. We identified several existing policies and 32 regulations for pedestrian safety like the Non-Motorized Transport policy whose 33 implementation has been inadequate. Implementation is constrained by weak institutional 34 capacity and limited resources. Moreover, road safety stakeholders operated in silos and this 35 hindered efforts to coordinate pedestrian safety activities. Interventions like road designs were 36 implemented with limited reference to any supporting data and therefore did not cater for 37 pedestrian needs. 3 38 Conclusion: There are interventions targeting pedestrian safety in Uganda, but 39 effective implementation is lacking or failing due to constraints related to weak institutional 40 capacity. This necessitates strategies to mobilize resources to strengthen the capacity of the 41 lead agency to effectively coordinate road safety interventions. 42