The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) have unveiled a major media initiative to improve road safety reporting across Africa. This initiative aims to address the alarming rate of road crashes in the continent, which claims nearly 250,000 lives annually. The launch took place at a three-day African media forum on road safety in Abuja, bringing together editors, journalists, and road safety experts from several African countries.
The African Region accounts for about one-fifth of global road traffic fatalities, despite having only three per cent of the world’s registered vehicles. Road deaths are also rising in the region, contrary to the global trend. Nigeria has the highest number of road traffic fatalities in the African Region, with over 36,000 deaths recorded annually. This has prompted calls for stronger public demand for policies capable of preventing road deaths and serious injuries.
The media initiative seeks to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and how road crashes are presented in the media. WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Pavel Ursu, emphasized that the initiative aims to correct misperceptions on an urgent and preventable health crisis and drive accountability for action that saves lives. He noted that media leaders can influence public conversations and help drive the adoption of policies capable of reducing deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
One of the key challenges in road safety reporting is the tendency for media reports to focus on individual crashes while overlooking broader factors such as unsafe infrastructure, inadequate laws, and weak enforcement. The proposed guidelines will be based on the Safe Systems approach, which recognizes that road users can make mistakes and seeks to ensure that transport systems are designed to prevent such errors from resulting in death or serious injury.
The Safe Systems approach prioritizes building safe streets for people, not fast-moving motor vehicles. Dr. Nhan Tran, Head of WHO’s Violence and Injury Prevention Unit, emphasized that road safety should be prioritized in the design of transport systems because human error cannot be completely eliminated. This approach is expected to guide the development of Africa’s first road safety media guidelines.
The partnership between WHO and CJID aims to establish an evidence-based standard for road safety reporting across Africa. Chief Executive Officer of CJID, Dapo Olorunyomi, noted that editorial choices can influence whether road crashes are understood merely as individual tragedies or as wider public policy failures. The media is expected to play a stronger role in holding authorities accountable for road safety.
The African media forum on road safety has brought together twenty participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. The participants include representatives of major news organizations such as the BBC, AFP, and Deutsche Welle. The guidelines are expected to be completed by mid-2027, and the initiative is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Key points
- The African Region accounts for one-fifth of global road traffic fatalities despite having only three per cent of the world’s registered vehicles.
- Nigeria has the highest number of road traffic fatalities in the African Region, with over 36,000 deaths recorded annually.
- The proposed guidelines will be based on the Safe Systems approach to promote evidence-based reporting and encourage stronger public demand for road safety policies.
