WHO and CJID Launch Road Safety Media Initiative in Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) initiated a significant media initiative to improve road safety reporting across Africa, unveiled on Tuesday in Abuja during a three-day African media forum. This initiative aims to address the alarming statistic of nearly 250,000 road deaths annually in Africa, where the region accounts for about one-fifth of global road traffic fatalities despite having only three percent of the world's registered vehicles.

Nigeria records over 36,000 road traffic fatalities each year, the highest in the African Region. WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Pavel Ursu, emphasized the need to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and media representation of road crashes.

The proposed guidelines will adopt the Safe Systems approach, focusing on designing transport systems that prevent fatal errors. CJID's CEO, Dapo Olorunyomi, highlighted the media's role in framing road crashes as public policy failures rather than isolated incidents.

The forum includes participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.