Ghana

Situation

Ghana

In Ghana, vulnerable road users make up more than 70%* of people killed in road traffic crashes annually, with over 40%* of those fatalities being pedestrians and another 18%* being cyclists and motorcycle riders.

Although a number of road safety practices are in effect, many such as national drink-driving laws are not well enforced in Ghana, while child restraint laws are not enforced at all. Legislation has been recently adopted prohibiting the use of mobile phones while driving.

In order to reverse the growing number of road traffic deaths, Ghana has committed to an aggressive fatality reduction target of 50%* by 2020.

(*WHO 2015)

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GRSP activities

Activities

Capacity building

In February 2017, GRSP provided 20 units of breathalysers through funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies to support their drink driving enforcement activities.

Road policing

In Accra, GRSP works with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) National Police and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to build and strengthen capacity of the police officers to enforce traffic laws in relation to drink driving and seatbelt wearing.

GRSP has conducted a series of ‘Data and Intelligence-led Policing’ workshops for senior officers from the MTTD (Motor Transport and Traffic Division), Ghana Police Service who are involved in data collection and collation and traffic wardens from the AMA Guards.

Programmes

Road Safety Grants Programme

The grants programme supports projects to develop and deliver high-impact, evidence-based interventions designed to strengthen road safety policies and their implementation.

Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS)

The programme works with countries at the national level to strengthen road safety legislation, and with cities at the city level to implement proven road safety interventions.

Road user groups

Pedestrians

With more than 270 000 pedestrians killed on roads each year, they account to almost a quarter of all road traffic casualties annually. Certain roads, especially in low and middle income countries, completely fail to separate road users from the rest of the road users, which put them in imminent danger.