Communication for Road Safety in Ethiopia Key Road Safety Players’ Perspectives

Abstract

Over 4,000 deaths and 15,000 injuries are registered on the Ethiopian roads each year due to road traffic crashes (RTCs), according to the government‘s reports. A key aspect of intervention to address this carnage is effectivecommunication among stakeholders engaged in road safety. Investigating actual communication practices of sectors and actors responsible for road safety could improve our knowledge of the contexts of their engagementto mitigate crashes and provide us with opportunities for better intervention schemes. The study aimed to assess how the key road safety players and stakeholders communicate to achieve the goal of reducing RTCs. The systems theory guided the qualitative study. Key road safety players and stakeholders working at the federal Road Safety and Insurance Funds Service (RSIFS), from regional transport bureaus, as well as from academia and the private sector, participated in the study; pertinent institutional documents were also used. The data collected through FGDs and in-depth interviews were analyzed thematically. Findings revealed that the key players recognize, as depicted in their documents, practices, and discourses, the value of sustained communication among road safety actors, stakeholders, and the larger public, and use a variety of communication methods and tools. However, ineffective communication affected the effort to reduce the number and impact of RTCs in Ethiopia, which contradicts claims of concerted effort and mobilization of the larger public for road safety engagement. Attention to the role of communication for a meaningful engagement of stakeholders is recommended for the future road safety work of Ethiopia.