Q1: How do you collaborate with local governments, communities, and other stakeholders to implement effective road safety infrastructure solutions?

Proximity and dialogue

Q2: How do you see the themes of ‘rights’ and ‘equality’ intersecting with road safety, particularly for women and girls in your region?

In Africa, women and girls are very affected by road safety issues, in particular as being street vendors, pedestrians and passengers of collective transport. Because Data reveals that men die more on the roads, mainly as driver, women and girls are not benefiting specific actions and initiatives to address their road safety problems.

As an example: It was recently found that pedestrian bridges for example are not effective for safe crossing, but it was also found out that in many African cities pedestrian bridges are the location where most girls are attacked. It is only very recently that we started questioning pedestrian bridges in road projects.

Q3: Are there specific road safety risks or disparities that disproportionately affect women and girls in your communities?

See above

Q4: How do we ensure that road safety initiatives are inclusive and address the needs of all road users, including vulnerable populations?

In all projects in which I am involved I place emphasis on working closely with social team to connect road safety with women and girls needs and rights. It is not always easy, but more and more accepted that we need to have a specific approach for women and girls as vulnerable users and primary victims as pedestrians and passengers.

Q5: How can improved road safety contribute to the empowerment of women and girls in your region?

By defining inclusive road projects where road safety and social aspects are regarded as crosscutting combined factors.

Q6: What are some practical steps that can be taken to ensure that women’s voices are heard and their needs are addressed in road safety planning and implementation?

Working with women groups, integrating better social components into the design and maintenance activities from planning to implementation and evaluation and producing indicators of safety able to cover their problems.

Q7: What is your vision for a future where all women and girls have equal rights and opportunities to travel safely?

Having safer pedestrian environments and improved collective transport with ambitious public transport policies.

Q8: How can the global community support your efforts to advance road safety and empower women and girls in Africa and the Middle East?

Strong advocacy.

Q1: How do you collaborate with local governments, communities, and other stakeholders to implement effective road safety infrastructure solutions?

There are various ways to communicate with local governments and other stakeholders. For example, if you’re talking about Europe, we have had, since 20 years ago, many partners with whom iRAP had started some work on infrastructure safety [and] was doing all this risk assessment and road safety assessment with iRAP Tools.

Some of them are Automobile Clubs who are members of the FIA and the clubs have been very supportive and have been doing a lot of assessment, connecting also to the local authorities like the cities and towns, sometimes also to local governments. And then this is how they got to work with them in assessing and in helping them to look at the risk on their roads. And afterwards, the local governments have been doing their own road improvement.

Another way of connecting with local governments is via Financial Institutions. Sometimes, for example, like the European Investment Bank or the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, they would be working with governments in the countries and they want to add in their procurement, in their infrastructure projects, the assessment of the risk of crashes.

Therefore, they would recommend the use of iRAP and we got to link to the governments and it has been a very successful scenario in trying to this via the financial institutions to get to do some capacity building to local governments. And therefore, it impacted their improvement of their road infrastructure.

The same scenario applies to the Middle East and to North Africa in my case, where low-and-middle-income countries always go through financial institutions to get support for their maintenance for the road, for constructing new roads.

And therefore, within the terms of reference, the financial institutions require that an assessment is done.

It also happens that some of our partners in the Academia Sector, like a university or research centers and who know about iRAP, that will talk to us about some of the work they have been doing with local authorities and they would want to get some training, some accreditation to the  practitioners in these countries and that will be also a way of connecting to local governments and mainly focus on capacity building.

When it comes to producing the work, we have a lot of iRAP accreditors in various regions and they would conduct the work, the specific assessment if the country does not have the competencies. But usually iRAP makes sure that there is capacity within the country so that the iRAP assessment are carried out and that they would lead to improving the road infrastructure to a better condition.

Q2: How do you see the themes of ‘rights’ and ‘equality’ intersecting with road safety, particularly for women and girls in your region?

In relation to rights and equalities intersecting with road safety, it is a very interesting question when you think about women and girls.

First of all, from my point of view, I have two opinions on that; I live in Europe and I work with iRAP in many European countries and, as well, coming myself from a middle Eastern country where I was born and also working with iRAP for the Middle East and also the Africa region, I can look at this, at road safety impacting the women, the lives of women and girls in different ways.

In Europe, I can see a lot of involvement of women and girls in in road safety, whether it is in advocacy or in the development of programs or in decision making positions, and I don’t think there is an inequality towards their role in the society.

On the other hand, if you think about rights and equality intersecting with road safety in the Middle East region, it is related also to culture and differences in comparison to Europe or to other continents. In the field of road safety, you can see much less involvement of women in the decision-making process and in the project delivery.

You could see more women involved in the advocacy part leading some NGOs that that has been intersecting with road safety. But we don’t see a lot, we do see we don’t see a lot of women in the decision-making role in relation to road safety. And it is also cultural because you don’t see a lot of women in the engineering field or in the public sector like local governments.

There is a lot of improvement though in that matter, but we can see the subject of road safety is more at attractive to women but unfortunately, these women are not in a position to make a lot of impact.

Q3: Are there specific road safety risks or disparities that disproportionately affect women and girls in your communities?

Yes, you can see some disparities in terms of the risks affecting women in road safety. For example, many women would not like to walk or cycle on certain roads because of safety issues and lack of facilities like pedestrian crossings and bike lanes. Therefore, if they do not have access to public transport, they do not have access to cars. They are forced to stay in their homes and be less involved in social activities.

Also, this applies to regions where women have to walk to for their for their work and they are involved in in road crashes because the roads are not safe enough and do not have the pedestrian facilities like sidewalks, like pedestrian crossings. So where we could see more men taking risk, we see women being impacted in the crashes because they are on the side of the of the road.

Q4: How do we ensure that road safety initiatives are inclusive and address the needs of all road users, including vulnerable populations?

It is very important, of course, to be inclusive in all projects and programs related to safety. What we can do, and that has not been done necessarily is to include in whichever project is being conducted, to include in the beginning of the project, some kind of survey related to assessing also the number of vulnerable road users that are affected by the risk. The iRAP tools, when assessing the roads, can differentiate the various road users. So you can assess the road for drivers, for vehicles. But you can also assess the road from the perspective of motorcyclists and also for cyclists and for pedestrians.

Having said that, when you are doing the assessment, it will be interesting to include also if these roads will impact a men, a women or children and then have some data, especially if you’re using the crash data that will show how many women are being involved in road crashes.

It will also raise the awareness among the decision-makers when putting new policies to realize that their decision could impact the lives of vulnerable road users and women and girls in the society. So that’s one way of addressing inclusivity.

Of course, the more, it’s like the chicken and egg, but the more you have vulnerable population included in the decision-making, the better you will have inclusive, the more you will have inclusive solutions.

What we suggest is to talk to local NGOs who are related to vulnerable road users or to women or to children or around schools. And even if they are not addressing road safety in their advocacy groups, they could be involved and sit at the table with those who are putting some decisions and policies in relation to the communities they are living in.

At the local level, it is a very good idea to start including the vulnerable population in the decision-making before it is done at the national level. I think this is how it could start in those countries where you don’t find a lot of women in the decision-making position.

Q5: How can improved road safety contribute to the empowerment of women and girls in your region?

Improving road safety and mostly improving the road infrastructure safety has a big impact on the mobility of vulnerable road users. With vulnerable road users, we could mostly talk about pedestrians and with pedestrians we are involving the kids going to school by walking to school or cycling to school, we are involving women who are also walking to their work or taking their kids to school and then we are involving also the community who doesn’t have another mode of transport.

So it has been proven that a better, a safer road is a road that is mostly safe for vulnerable road users and it will improve their mobility.

When we are talking about the urban streets, it is important to understand that safer sidewalks, safer crossings, better lighting and a safer bus stops that are well lit and that are well located and the routes in the small street going to where the people have to work or to the bus stops are completely safe and do not have a high speed.

These roads are definitely impacting the likelihood of vulnerable road users using them and being safer. So this is a very important component where we can see road safety can impact the vulnerable population.

Also safer road infrastructure, which means safer mobility, is one major component for empowerment of women and girls mainly in the in the Middle East region. A safe road means a mother can walk with her kids to school. Safer roads means a girls can aspire to do access education or a job that is further away using safe mobility modes such as public transport, walking or cycling.

When public transport is safe and then you don’t have risks in taking it and then waiting for the bus and returning home at night. That means that more girls and women will not be afraid to go to areas where they will not go if the road or if their transport mode was not safe and the road infrastructure is not safe enough for them to walk on it. And this is the first step towards making them go out of their house and integrate in a much bigger role in their community.

Also the education of girls. The rights to education at a high level and going to college is important because this will also give them more opportunities to be in the decision-making roles and to have more power in the decision that they have with what they do with their life.

While we can see this in most of the countries in Europe, we could note that in some regions, whether it’s in in the Middle East or in North Africa, you can see the difference between having a good education in the towns and living in provinces or in villages.

Here you could see the rights, but mainly the inequalities between gender. Therefore safe mobility using safe infrastructure can have such a positive impact in empowering women.

Q6: What are some practical steps that can be taken to ensure that women’s voices are heard and their needs are addressed in road safety planning and implementation?”

To address these challenges, I talked about it in replying to the previous questions. In my opinion, I think  including girls from a very young age in any decision, in any group of decision that is made at the very local level will already empower them to raise their voice and to have an opinion about their safety and about their life afterwards.

Also, including the local groups, women group within groups, even if they are not doing advocacy in relation to road safety, but if they are doing any kind of advocacy at the very local level including them in having them on the table with the other groups to make some decision in relation to their mobility and to their safety is already one big step towards empowering them.

I believe in empowering women at local level first, which will then impact on a national scale. So the scenario where men are making the decisions because they are in in the public sector taking the decisions, decision-making rules and imposing these decisions on vulnerable communities or on the other gender might not be the best solution.

And we have seen so far some decision-making, people doing excellent decision, including the other gender. But in some cases they were completely isolating the other group. So, therefore, at the at the table where the discussion are started, this is when you need to include the other gender. And of course, this also means that the other gender has access to education equally, like they have the same level of education in schools, in university and therefore, will be able to participate in these discussions as well.

When all jobs in societies are open to women equally like they are open to men and there is no discrimination, it is a big step towards including them in the road safety.

I think having women, more women, who are bus drivers, taxi drivers – more women who are engineers, who are in the fields of road transport, in any kind of position, whether in the in the construction or in the design, they are most likely to also be more inclusive of this gender and of vulnerable road users in their way of driving or designing the road or even being in the education sector.

Q7: What is your vision for a future where all women and girls have equal rights and opportunities to travel safely?

My vision for the future is to enable safer mobility modes, starting with women included in all decision-making activities related to road safety. Including the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Infrastructure and in the legal system. And more women in the road arena, equal numbers of women in all layers of society that are impacting safer road infrastructure and safer mobility for all road users.

Like, I said, bus drivers, taxi drivers, school bus drivers, policewomen and security, women, mayors, engineers, designers, communication. Although in some of these aspects women are already being involved in, my vision is to have more, even equal number of women in all these layers of the of the societies that are impacting the safety of the road infrastructure and the safety of the mobility of all road users.

Q8: How can the global community support your efforts to advance road safety and empower women and girls in Africa and the Middle East?

The global community can, from the beginning of the project, include local groups where women have a significant role to discuss road safety issues.

The global community can look at the numbers and data, and the impact on women from the road safety aspects in relation to crashes and the impact this has on society, when a disproportioned number of women are injured.

It is important that they are including them in the discussions and certainly the global community can request that the implementation of the program is being managed by local women.

Therefore, this will give them more responsibility. And as we know, women also take a big role in the education of us as teachers, but also in the education within their families. If they have a role to play in the implementation of road safety programs, they are most likely to spread a better behavior and a better understanding within their teaching, within their education and within their families.

The global community can put in conditions when going to the regions like the one I am working for in the Middle East, where we have requested that women and all vulnerable road users are included in the discussions and in the implementation from start to finish.

To make sure we are training more women, ensure they are part of accreditation and certifications programs to fully comprehend how women can influence safer road infrastructure and therefore enable safer mobility journeys for all road users.

And of course, when the when capacity building is being done, to make sure they have enough, if not equal, number of women in the capacity building projects like the training and accreditation and certification for the assessment of the road and for understanding what it takes to have a better infrastructure.

Q1: How do you collaborate with local governments, communities, and other stakeholders to implement effective road safety infrastructure solutions?

Partnerships are at the heart of iRAP’s impact eliminating high-risk roads worldwide. We’re working with some 34,000 partners across the globe to provide them with the free tools, training and support to make their roads safer. It is their success implementing the iRAP methodology to make roads safe in their communities that has helped save 700,000 lives and injuries between 2016 and 2024.

Q2: How do you see the themes of ‘rights’ and ‘equality’ intersecting with road safety, particularly for women and girls in your region?

Gender inequality denies individuals their human rights – their right to access an education, to move freely in their communities, access economic opportunities to help their families prosper, and travel with safety. Women and girls experience mobility differently to men – they travel at different times of day with care-giver responsibilities that can see them more likely to rely on public transport and walking.

An iRAP study conducted in Mumbai found that for men, 46% of trips occurred on roads rated 3-star or better, whereas for women, this figure dropped to 38%. Road safety investments can and must help to close the gender gap to ensure both boys and girls have equal access to safe mobility, education and social participation at all levels.

Q3: Are there specific road safety risks or disparities that disproportionately affect women and girls in your communities?

In Australia, while men are statistically more likely to be involved in fatal crashes overall, women and girls can face specific road safety risks, such as higher vulnerability as passengers, increased risk of violence or harassment during travel, and potential disparities in access to transportation, particularly in rural areas, which can limit their mobility and safety.

Vehicle design and crash test dummies are often based on the average male body which means female occupants may not receive the same level of protection in crashes. Women may perceive certain roads or times of day as less safe, impacting their travel choices and mobility.

Q4: How do we ensure that road safety initiatives are inclusive and address the needs of all road users, including vulnerable populations?

To ensure road safety initiatives are inclusive and address the needs of all road users, including vulnerable populations, it’s crucial to conduct thorough needs assessments, tailor interventions based on specific vulnerabilities, prioritize accessible communication strategies, involve diverse stakeholders in planning, and actively monitor the impact of initiatives on different groups; this includes considering factors like age, disability, socioeconomic status, and geographic location when designing and implementing safety measures. 

iRAP is one of 38 partners working on the 3-year ELABORATOR project in 6 lighthouse cities and 6 follower cities across Europe. By prioritizing the needs of marginalized communities, ELABORATOR aims to design and test interventions which foster inclusivity at every stage of urban planning and innovation putting people at the heart of road safety for sustainable urban mobility.

Q5: How can improved road safety contribute to the empowerment of women and girls in your region?

When the road safety of women and girls is guaranteed, they can more effectively contribute to better outcomes for themselves, their families and their communities. Being able to travel safely to school ensures access to higher levels of education and job opportunities. Vehicle and road design that takes into account their different physiology, needs and travel patterns not only protects, but also empowers their unrestricted participation in society.

Road safety is linked to women’s economic and social empowerment, and their ability to rise out of poverty and gender-based discrimination and violence.

Q6: What are some practical steps that can be taken to ensure that women’s voices are heard and their needs are addressed in road safety planning and implementation?

Include women in road safety planning and implementation. Include gender analysis in data collection and safety audits. Ensure women are included in road safety leadership roles, focus groups and committees to ensure their perspectives and needs are included in decision-making and policy.

Ensure crash test dummies are based on the female physique, so vehicle safety features are appropriate to reduce their risk in crashes.

Be aware of the travel trends and needs of women and girls in designing roads and rural and urban landscapes they frequent – for example, improve lighting in public spaces, create safe pedestrian crossings, and install adequate public transportation infrastructure that is accessible and safe for women, especially at night.

Encourage women and girls to undertake road safety training and participation in the transport field such as as engineers. iRAP is passionate about fostering women in engineering and road safety. We’ve been offering training grants to increase female participation in our #RAPCommunity for a number of years and its been thrilling to see how they’ve taken the opportunity and created their own success.

Q7: What is your vision for a future where all women and girls have equal rights and opportunities to travel safely?

A future where all women and girls have equal rights and opportunities to travel safely is one where transportation systems, policies, technical innovation and societal norms are designed to promote freedom of movement, access to education and employment opportunities, autonomy and road safety for everyone, regardless of gender.

Q8: How can the global community support your efforts to advance road safety and empower women and girls?

iRAP is part of a very active international road safety community working to advance road safety and empower women and girls in Africa and the Middle East.

Our Star Rating for Schools and Training and Accreditation Programs are just two examples of how we do this. We are supporting local and international partners to identify high-risk schools and improve the safety of school journeys to ensure girls can access an education and, with their care-givers, get safely home each day.

We are training female engineers and road safety practitioners, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to make roads in their communities safer, and not only participate in road safety decision-making, but lead it.

Our grant program ensures finance is not a limiting factor to their professional development.