WB, BRAC to work with govt reducing 50% fatalities on roads by ‘3

Dhaka (Oct 24, 2020): The World Bank and the nongovernment organization BRAC will jointly work with the government in reducing 50 percent fatalities on roads across the country by 2030.

The WB and the BRAC today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard in an online event in presence of Road Transport and Bridges Minister, Obaidul Quader.

The event titled ‘Road Safety Collaboration: Reducing road fatalities 50% by 2030’ also launched a road safety awareness campaign along 48 Km Jessore-Jhenaidah road as part of the partnership.

The campaign will be the complement of the WB supported WeCARE project, which was approved in June 2020 aiming to upgrade the existing two-lane highway of Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron and Jahore-Jhenaidah to a safer four-lane highway.

BRAC and the world lender will partner together to promote safety for women in public transport and will conduct training of drivers including women for improving their driving skills.  

Meanwhile BRAC driving school’s initiated programme ‘women behind the wheels’ has so far trained up 214 women as professional drivers to make the efforts successful, said a press release.

Globally around 1.35 million people die every year in road accidents while in Bangladesh the road crashes are the fourth leading cause of death of children aged between five and 14, and 67 percent of victims are within the 15-49 age group, it said.

Quader praised the joined initiative and said, “Under the leadership of Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has taken action plans to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal, cutting the number of road fatalities by half within the next decade. Bangladesh is taking a comprehensive approach for ensuring road safety.”

He also assured that his ministry will provide all out support to the WB and the BRAC joint efforts in providing training to the female drivers.

“Road safety is an important aspect for economic development of a country,” said Dandan Chen, acting country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

“We are proud to be the part of the government’s commitment to better road safety through a National Road Safety Program. Our partnership with the BRAC will reinforce the support to the program for improving the road safety in both rural and urban areas in Bangladesh,” he said.

The collaboration will support exchange of knowledge and raise awareness among stakeholders to reduce fatalities and injuries from road accidents, he added.

This will help the country adopt interventions based on the Safe-System Approach, including safe roads and safe behaviors, as recommended globally.

Since 2011, under BRAC’s community road safety awareness program, over 1.2 million people have received training on the safe use of roads.

In addition, 5,451 schoolteachers and 498,000 school children have received special awareness training on road safety.

“I believe this joint initiative between the BRAC and the World Bank will be a big step to take the road safety system in the project area towards a new level, said Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC.