Thursday 15 November: A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Roads Administration of Morocco and the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP), signed and approved by Dr Abdelkader Amara, transport minister in the Moroccan Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water (METLW).  The document exchange coincided with the 1st African Road Safety Forum 2018, held in Morocco.

The objective of the MOU is to work together to establish a locally-led iRAP – Morocco programme and work to achieve the following:

• Develop programmes and measures to reduce the road death toll and serious injuries in Morocco.
• Assess roads in Morocco which are likely to have the worst levels of road fatalities and to generate a programme of affordable, safe infrastructure and other countermeasures capable of rapid implementation.
• Build capacity within the road safety engineering sector in Morocco.

The actual annual number of fatalities (WHO, 2015) in Morocco is estimated by WHO at 6,870 for 2013.  Estimates put the annual number of fatalities and serious injuries at around 75,570.

By the signing of the MOU, Morocco will be working with iRAP initially to assess several hundred kilometres of its highest risk roads, seeking to raise the standard of these roads to 3-star or better and aiming to achieve 75% of travel on all roads that meet technical standards for all road-users by 2030.

iRAP partners with governments, mobility clubs, development banks, research institutes and road safety NGOs in 90 countries to provide the tools and training to make roads safe.

This collaboration is another fantastic example of working with local leadership to create a world free of high risk roads.

For more information on Establishing a RAP programme in your country click here.

Featured image: Said EL Karkouri (Moroccan Roads Directorate) and Dr Steve Lawson (Regional Director – Europe, the Middle East and Africa) with signed MOU.