The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) has furnished the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) with traffic management equipment as part of a concerted effort to promote road safety in the city.
The donation, aimed at equipping the city’s enforcement drive to mitigate road hazards, includes items such as LED-light batons, reflective vests, traffic cones, directional signposts, and raincoats.
“As you know, we are engaged in the initiative with Accra through the end of 2025. We have less than 2 years left with the whole program, so we want to accomplish as much as we can in the (21 twenty-one) months we have left. Looking forward to your leadership, it has been a wonderful collaboration until now.”
Rebecca Bavinger, Public Health Professional of BIGRS
Rebecca Bavinger, a Public Health Professional at Bloomberg Philanthropies (BP) handed over the equipment to the AMA when she called on the Mayor of Accra as part of a 6-day working visit to Ghana.
She added that the initiative would officially end in 2025 and expressed appreciation to the AMA for the collaboration, describing the partnership as wonderful.
Rebecca Bavinger expressed BIGRS’s eagerness to accomplish as much as possible within the next twenty-one months of the partnership, emphasizing the importance of leadership.
Additionally, she mentioned some key achievements of the initiative citing the construction of road safety enhancement works at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, London Market Street, among others.
Also, it has contributed to the training of police officers , communication agencies and AMA enforcement team, donation of 12-speed guns to AMA for the Police, as well as collaboration with journalists to report on issues of road safety.
BIGRS Promoting Road Safety
The BIGRS is part of a global partnership aimed at saving lives from road traffic crashes, with the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) being one of its key partners. The initiative has leveraged road safety in Bank-financed projects, supported by the GRSF-BIGRS partnership. This partnership has been instrumental in improving road safety infrastructure management, crash data management, and capacity building in selected countries and cities.
The BIGRS has been active in promoting road safety since 2007, focusing on five key areas: strengthening national legislation, enhancing data collection and surveillance, changing road user behavior, improving road infrastructure, and upgrading vehicle safety. These efforts have resulted in the saving of nearly 312,000 lives and the reduction of injuries from traffic crashes in more than 50 cities and provinces.
“As Accra continues to grapple with the complexities of urban mobility and traffic management, partnerships like these serve as a beacon of hope, instilling confidence in the collective effort to create safer and more sustainable transportation systems… With this Traffic Management Equipment, Accra is poised to embark on a transformative journey towards safer roads and enhanced public security.”
Hon. Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey, Accra Mayor
The Mayor of Accra, Hon. Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey who received the equipment expressed profound gratitude to Bloomberg Philanthropies for their unwavering support and commitment to road safety initiatives stressing that donation would augment the city’s capabilities to address road safety challenges effectively.
Hon. Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey assured that the Assembly would intensify education and enforcement activities to deter deviant behaviors on the road.
In 2020, the BIGRS commenced its third phase, which will run to 2025. Priority cities of the new BIGRS phase include Accra, Addis Ababa, Bengaluru, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kampala, Kumasi, Mumbai, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Recife.
The BIGRS’s support for the AMA in Accra is part of a larger, global effort to improve road safety and reduce traffic fatalities. Through its comprehensive approach, the initiative has made significant strides in enhancing road safety infrastructure, training, and enforcement, with Accra being one of the cities benefiting from these efforts.
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