More than 150,000 people in the Northern Mountains region to benefit from Aus4Transport Road Safety Campaign
IN BRIEF
According to the data from Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee, in 2021 road accidents accounted for more than 98% of the total number of traffic accidents. Despite a continuous decrease in traffic accidents, the human cost of road crashes in Vietnam is still alarming, with nearly 5,700 fatalities and 8,000 injuries in 2021. The main causes behind these figures are poor road conditions, insufficient law enforcement and lack of awareness from road users of appropriate road safety practices.
In accordance with the National Strategy of the Vietnamese Government for the period 2021-2030 to ensure road traffic order and safety in a sustainable way, Aus4Transport, the partnership between the Australian Government and the Government of Vietnam in transport sector, has been working closely with the Ministry of Transport to enhance road safety through higher quality transport infrastructure by providing technical assistance in engineering design, strengthening behavioral and management capacity of transport officials, and increasing public awareness of traffic safety for contractors, road users and local communities in project areas.
Besides the detailed design for two major construction projects, the “Central Highlands Connectivity Improvement Project” and the “Northern Mountain Provinces Transport Connectivity Project (NMPTCP)”, where road safety guidelines have been strictly followed to ensure the construction quality, Aus4Transport has recently submitted the “Road Safety Awareness Campaign Design”, a complementing component to NMPTCP, which will be implemented during the construction phase of the project. This is a significant activity, as it aims to enhance the capacity of related parties and target specific groups to reduce the risk of traffic accidents on the invested roads in the project areas by heightening awareness and practice of traffic safety and promoting increased respect towards traffic laws and regulations.
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Vietnam is famous for its diverse and beautiful topography; however, this geographic beauty is a big challenge when it comes to developing a comprehensive and high-quality transport infrastructure network, especially in areas with difficult access and complex terrain.
The northern mountainous region of Vietnam has a high prevalence of traffic accidents due to difficult terrain, poor visibility, degraded road condition, unsafe vehicles, and insufficient traffic inspections and supervision from local authorities. In addition, when compared to big cities, this area is economically, socially and educationally disadvantaged. Coupling with a high proportion of ethnic minority groups, this disadvantage translates into a significant lack of knowledge and awareness of traffic skills and safety in the local communities, putting road users at increased risk of road crashes.
A safe road requires the right combination of high-quality infrastructure and appropriate attitude and behaviors of road users. It is for this reason that Aus4Transport is making strong efforts to ensure road safety is mainstreamed in all the Program’s activities. The RSAC Design activity presents a comprehensive road safety awareness campaign designed to enhance the capacity of relevant agencies and stakeholders to implement road and traffic regulations. It will also increase the knowledge, traffic skills, and risk awareness among the key target groups of the Project, encouraging safe traffic participation, especially among the most vulnerable users, such as women, youth, and ethnic minorities.
Since 2019, Aus4Transport has been collaborating with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on the USD245 million project that will upgrade two national highways and two provincial roads of approximately 199km in length, passing through seven districts, towns, and cities across the provinces of Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Lai Chau.
As a supplementary component of NMPTCP, the RSAC will target the affected groups in 30 communes across these three provinces, covering a total of 35,351 households and 153,321 people (data 2019). Out of over 150,000 people, 49% are females, 71% belong to ethnic minority groups, and 37% are youth, who are considered vulnerable and in need of special attention during the campaign.
Being designed to align with UNDP’s general roadway traffic safety program and closely following Vietnamese rules and regulations, this campaign will be implemented, before, during and after road works, through a variety of approaches and methodologies, ensuring gender sensitivity and respecting cultural diversity. Importantly, the campaign will include the participation of, not only the target groups of road users, but also local authorities and communication facilitators, who will play a vital role in ensuring traffic safety after the upgraded roads are in use.
With the strong support from local authorities and the contribution of experienced road safety specialists, Aus4Transport plans to implement this activity over an approximately 2-year period, in line with the closing date of the first phase of construction, supposed to be finished by June 2024.
With clear goals and targets, the RSAC will minimize the negative impact of road infrastructure development by ensuring the health and well-being of individuals and communities around the project area. In this way, it will make a genuine contribution to safely enhancing the transport connectivity of the three provinces to the GMS economic corridor. This in turn will open opportunities for trade and facilitate access to education and healthcare services for local communities, serving a long-term strategic goal to support economic growth and reduce poverty.
