BRAC Road Safety Programme

In 2000, the government of Bangladesh requested BRAC to complement its efforts to improve road safety in the country. BRAC chose to build road safety awareness, partly because of the insufficiency of road safety education in the formal education curriculum and the provision of information being passed along via word of mouth. Their approach was to involve the local communities, building their road safety capacity and road safety ownership, because their organisational experience had taught them that local ownership of development initiatives is crucial for achieving the desired outcome.

In 2003, BRAC, in collaboration with Transport Research Laboratory UK, conducted a community-based action research project in the community of Betila in Bangladesh. It was done to identify a cost-effective and good practice guideline in order to carry out road safety community education programmes in developing countries. The study observed behaviour of local pedestrians and held in-depth individual and household surveys on existing accident records and focus group discussions (FGDs) with different segments of the community. The community was engaged to identify the pressing road safety problems and prompted to suggest awareness-raising mechanisms they deemed effective. A 'before and after intervention' evaluation process was also applied to see the impact of interventions in improving pedestrians' knowledge and behaviour. This action research laid the groundwork for BRAC Road Safety Programme's approach to community-based projects.

After such consultation with professionals and community members and field tests in campaign areas, BRAC developed information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and has used them in multiple road safety campaigns over the years. They have produced different posters and a flipchart to disseminate widely with road safety institutions, educational institutions, and community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs for use in their own road safety training activities. In some project areas, billboards carrying road safety messages were installed. Others included the development and broadcasting of road safety advertisements on national television. More specifically:

• Flip chart: A 14-page, well-researched, colourful flip chart was prepared and is being used for pedestrian, children, community, and driver education on road safety.
• Posters: Three posters have been produced on awareness of pedestrians and proper use of road engineering facilities.
• Billboards: A total of 12 large billboards containing road safety messages and instructions were designed and installed at 12 key spots beside Dhaka-Sylhet and Barisal-Kuakata highway.
• Video training material: A 19-minute video training film was produced for road safety awareness of pedestrians and public transport passengers. The film is being used for the education of roadside communities with the help of multimedia projectors.
• A 44-minute video film was produced for road safety training of commercial vehicle drivers. The film is being used for road safety awareness of drivers at transport terminals.
• Baro Bidhi (12 Rules): A set of 12 do's and don'ts has been prepared for over 4,500 motorcycle riding field workers of BRAC.
• Reflective stickers: To making rickshaws visible at night, honeycomb reflective stickers are used. The highly visible stickers are pasted on the backs of rickshaws and rickshaw vans. (Pullers of these vehicles are mostly illiterate, untrained, and unaware of traffic rules. These rickshaw pullers are put through a participatory road safety training session lasting half a day followed by pasting of the stickers.)
• Animated film: An animated film on road safety titled "Lal, Holud aar Shobuj (Red, Yellow and Green)" was created and piloted on local cable TV channels in 2004. Under World Bank's Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance Project - III, another 4 episodes were produced and aired on the state run Bangladesh Television (BTV) in 2005. With further support of the Royal Danish Embassy, 4 more episodes were produced and aired on BTV in 2007.
• Booklet for quiz competition: A booklet on how to behave safely on the road was developed for students. The students were quizzed later based on their learnings.
• Booklet for professional motor vehicle drivers: Designed for in-service drivers, the booklet aimed to help them remember the knowledge that they have gained at the training. As many of them are illiterate, the booklet is mostly illustration-based, with supplementary texts.

These materials are incorporated into the community road safety awareness campaigns undertaken by the road safety programme. Here is a selected list:

• 2005: Campaign on Dhaka-Sylhet highway with Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Ministry of Communication and World Bank - Among those who received face-to-face messages and training on road safety were 105,000 students (taught by their teachers), 2,019 commercial motor vehicle drivers, and 12,500 rickshaw pullers (who received reflective stickers). In addition, 26,625 people saw road safety theatre shows, which are designed to get the audience involved in demonstrating the road safety messages delivered during the show; a discussion is held afterwards. The performance incorporates local customs, dialects, ethnicities, etc. based on the location. Usually, the majority of audience consists of women and children. Furthermore, 1,700 people saw multimedia shows, which make use of a training video followed by discussion, and 14,625 houses and shops were reached via a door-to-door camapign for road safety sensitisation. At the end of the intervention, the majority of the population living in the project areas, numbering at least 540,000, had received some of the road safety messages. One impact assessment with non-representative sample size suggested that the road safety knowledge of commercial motor vehicle drivers improved significantly. Furthermore, leaders of 24 grassroot organisations were trained and linked to road safety institutions, and 39 community road safety groups were organised and trained. The latter groups take responsibility for their local road safety situation. Each group's 10-12 members meet voluntarily on a bi-monthly basis to plan and implement relevant actions, such as advocating vendors to stop encroaching the road with their stalls.
• 2006: Campaign for road safety education for school students in Khulna and Barisal with Local Government Engineering Department with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) - The project resulted in 35,000 school students being sensitised about road safety (by their trained teachers) at their educational institutions. A non-scientific impact assessment indicated that the students showed a major improvement in their road safety knowledge. They were also encouraged to spread the road safety knowledge to people they knew. In addition, 20 local NGOs and CBOs were trained on road safety.
• 2007: Campaign on road safety awareness with RHD and DANIDA to promote institution building and capacity development of roadside communities along the highway to Kuakata - At least 25,000 individuals received face-to-face road safety messages (e.g., through theatre shows or door-to-door visits) or road safety training. Almost all of the population living in the project area (numbering 50,000) received road safety messages. Furthermore, 8 NGOs (2 executives or coordinators from each) and members of 8 community road safety groups were trained on road safety. The workshop held with community road safety groups catalysed further actions.
• 2011: BRAC organised events marking the launching of the United Nations Decade of Actions for Road Safety 2011-2020 on May 11 2011. For example, BRAC called for united efforts through major national dailies and spread awareness online.
• 2014: Road safety awareness project with Chevron Bangladesh for communities living near its Bibiyana gas field - In the first phase of the project, 5,240 individuals received face-to-face messages on road safety. BRAC trained 25 head teachers, 157 teachers, 232 bus and truck drivers, 314 rickshaw pullers, and 12 rickshaw van pullers. The teachers have in turn taught 4,500 of their students, who have also participated in a road safety quiz competition. Furthermore, 6 community road safety groups have been formed, trained, and guided in their road safety action planning and execution.
• 2015: Road safety awareness programme in Cox's Bazar and Gazipur districts - The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and BRAC Road Safety Programme signed an agreement to pilot a two-year road safety awareness programme, which is designed to reach students, teachers, street-side vendors, shopkeepers, and drivers of non-motorised and motorised vehicles. In phase one, at least 55,000 individuals received face-to-face road safety messages and training. The expectation is that at least another 55,000 individuals will receive road safety messages because of students sharing their new knowledge with their family members, and of people watching any of the 216 large screen open-air video trainings. In addition, 30 community road safety groups, one in each of the campaign areas alongside roads, were formed, trained, and guided during and after their community road safety action planning workshop. Fifteen CBO leaders and 5 local LGED staff were trained to improve the road safety situation, and 2 upazilla road safety committees have been organised and activated.

Also, there is a BRAC Driving School, which opened its first branch in May 2012 at the compound of the BLC - BRAC Learning Centre. It is there that the 21 young women comprising the inaugural batch of the BRAC Driving School took their driving license tests, following an 8-week residential course, in September of that year in the presence of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) officials. All aged between 20 and 22 and hailing from places as far-flung as Gorahat in Dinajpur and Kawakhali in Rangamati, the young women came to Dhaka having heard of a government initiative to hire 600 women drivers. This school also hosts offerings like a road safety and defensive driving training for in-service bus and truck drivers called 'Shurakkha'. It focuses on modifying the attitude and behaviour of drivers towards road safety and driving.

The coalition of local NGOs to which BRAC has offered training on community road safety formed a Community Road Safety NGO Network under the umbrella of BRAC. These organisations are supported through resources by BRAC for conducting road safety training and awareness campaigns within their operating areas. The purpose of the NGO network is to build the capacity of NGOs, so that they, too, can write project proposals, apply for funds, and use the financial support of donors to implement projects in their locality. This is done with the aim of sustainability for road safety activities (even after BRAC stops their road safety interventions in the project areas).

Together with BRAC's advocacy for social change programme, the road safety programme has worked on an advocacy project called 'Promoting Safe Road Code'. In this 3-year project (2013 - 2015), BRAC promoted the great importance of road safety in general and organised some national-level discussions to improve the proposed road traffic act (RTA). Another activity was conducting research on road safety carried out by Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC). A higher goal of the project was to create an enabling environment for the road safety programme. As communities, local and national policymakers, other authorities, and service providers such as the BRTA have been sensitised on and mobilised for road safety, future activities of the road safety programme can receive more support.

The Research and Evaluation Division (RED) of BRAC has carried out a number of studies related to the road safety programme; some may be found and downloaded here. Other studies that may be of interest include:

• Knowledge and Behaviour Assessment of Drivers and Community People towards Road Safety: A Baseline Study, by Mrinmoy Samadder and Polin Kumar Saha, published January 2018
• Assessment of Road Safety Awareness and Knowledge among Drivers and Community People: A Baseline Study, by Polin Kumar Saha and Mrinmoy Samadder, published December 2017.

Road Safety

Globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Ninety percent of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately 54% of the world's vehicles. Nearly half of those dying on the world's roads are pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Sustainable development Goal (SDG) 3.6 is to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.

BRAC cites WHO data showing that over 21,000 deaths occurred from road crashes in Bangladesh in 2015, with road traffic crashes equating to an estimated 1.6 per cent loss to the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). Most affected families are driven into poverty from the loss of a family member who was a source of earning.