/ 27 January 2025

Trump’s exit from WHO an opportunity for Africa to take charge of road safety on the continent

Introducing VAS systems onto South African roads could serve as a road safety remedy.
Africa is the World Health Organisation’s biggest beneficiary in terms of road safety projects

Immediately after assuming the presidency, President Donald Trump announced that the US would exit the World Health Organisation (WHO). He said the global health agency had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other international health crises. This wasn’t the first time he had expressed his dissatisfaction, having previously expressed concerns about disproportionate funding from countries such as China. Trump signed an executive order shortly thereafter. 

This move sent shockwaves worldwide, especially in the research community, because the US is the WHO’s biggest donor, accounting for about 20% of its total financing. In essence, this executive order is a 12-month notice from the US to withdraw from the United Nations health organisation and cease all financial support for its operations, which is about $6.8 billion.

 Share of Mandatory Fund Contributions  from 2024-2025 A graph of a bar graph

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 Source: World Health Organisation (2025)

The US’s exit will undoubtedly affect the WHO and its related programmes, especially road safety. The UN’s sustainable development goals target 3.6, which aims to cut the number of fatalities and injuries from traffic accidents in half worldwide, and SDG target 11.2 — which calls for universal access to safe, cheap, accessible and sustainable transportation systems — are the two targets that particularly address road safety. This comes at a time when the second decade of action, the UN’s programme to reduce global road deaths and serious injuries by 50% in 2030, is only five years away. 

Africa and South Africa

The WHO estimates that road traffic injuries and deaths in Africa cost at least $12 billion and $26 billion annually, respectively. Africa is the WHO’s biggest beneficiary in terms of road safety projects. Programmes such as Safer Streets for Road Users in Africa, Safe and Inclusive Road Design, and the Ten Step Plan for Safer Road Infrastructure are all United Nations-funded programmes. 

Africa cannot rely solely on funding from the WHO to meet our sustainable development goals and Second Decade of Action targets. Although South Africa is relatively better regarding road safety research, a lot still needs to be done. 

Maybe we, as low- to middle-income countries, rely too much on the UN to prioritise road safety. Maybe we now have an opportunity to give road safety the sacrosanctity it deserves. There’s enough research to demonstrate that we are not doing enough to invest in road safety research as a region. The cost of road crashes on the economy is already at astronomical levels but is not adequately reflected in road safety research investment.  

What could and should be done 

  • Incremental spending and investment: Each country should establish targets for budget allocation towards road safety research and programmes. Gradually increasing investment is preferable to having no budget at all.
  • Dashboards and inventories: Creating dashboards, databases, and archives is essential for studying and analysing trends in road safety. These tools play a crucial role in monitoring progress and identifying areas for improvement.
  • Private sector collaboration: Given the budget constraints faced by most countries, collaborating with the private sector can enhance road safety efforts. The private sector can also help bridge existing skills gaps.
  • Academia: Involving universities, colleges and research institutions in road safety research is vital. Their participation can address capacity issues, both in terms of personnel numbers and specialised skills.
  • Intersectoral collaboration: Road safety involves multiple sectors. Road safety agencies should collaborate with sectors such as health, transport, finance and logistics to better research and understand road safety issues.
  • Inter-state collaborations: Some road safety issues extend beyond state borders. For instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) can take part in collaborative research to address these cross-border problems effectively.

As we go to Marrakech from 18 to 20 February 2025, African delegates will form part of the  4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The purpose of this conference is to assess the progress made in implementing the Global Plan 2021-2030 during its initial five-year period, to generate support for the new vision of safe and sustainable mobility. This could be a good platform to reflect on our commitment to road safety as African states. 

If we are to understand road safety in Africa, we must invest in research that focuses on road safety. This is the only way. 

Lemo Monyatsi is a doctoral student in engineering at the University of Cape Town. @bikomfident (twitter)

3 Replies to “Trump’s exit from WHO an opportunity for Africa to take charge of road safety on the continent”

  1. Given the appalling stats of road fatalities, it is indeed a crucial part to tackle and gain independence upon, from safe and viable automotive improvements to better road conditions, only during 2024/25 festive season we had about 1502 road fatalities which is deeply sad and terrifying. Hopefully as Africa with more research and study we will be able, with the US pulling out at a 20% market contribution. So many point and we’ll stated. Thank you

  2. Well said ,indeed our government need to invest more on road safety and measures in place to reduce accidents, fix our roads.

  3. Research per se is not always required as most solutions have already been developed and implemented in most if not all developed countries. All that is needed is for government agencies to listen to suppliers for instance of performance based road restraint systems and implement what has already been proven to work. Expensive consultants are not needed to design something that has already been catered for in manuals such as the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. So please include suppliers in all of these high cost research programs that are being promoted

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