HOW IS SOUTH AFRICA RESPONDING TO ROAD TRAFFIC INCIDENTS? –
An analysis of THE DECADE OF ACTION FOR ROAD SAFETY POLICY 2011-2020 in South Africa.
An accident is defined as a traffic accident or incident if it occurs on a road or in a place to which the public have access (Citizen Advice Bureau, 2015). This may include footpaths and bridle ways. Road Traffic Incidents (RTIs) is a growing and neglected global epidemic (Worley, 2006, WHO, 2003, and WHO, 2011). Road traffic incidents is a global burden taking lives of 1.3 million people each year of which 260 000 are children, nearly 3400 people dying on the world’s roads each day and 50 million injured (Worley, 2006, WHO 2011 and appendix number 1). It is predicted that the aforementioned rates are going to double if there are no effective interventions in place and RTIs could become the fifth global cause of mortality by 2030 (Please see appendix number 2). The rate of mortality is likely to increase particularly in low and medium income/economic countries (WHO, 2013).
South Africa is ranked as an upper medium income country (World Bank, 2013). It has a population of about 53 million and a quarter of the population is unemployed, living on less than US$1.25 a day (World Bank, 2013). Therefore, poverty and inequality remain widespread. RTIs pose a huge threat to the public health globally as it contributes to the causes of poverty. Some researchers have found out that there is an association between RTIs and poverty (Plasència and Borrell, 2001, Boseley, 2008, Males, 2009). In their article they state that it is time for public health community to tackle socio-economic inequalities in RTIs in a more systematic way (Plasència and Borrell, 2001).
The United Nations (UN) have responded to the issue of RTIs as a national or global emergency. In 2010 Member States of the UN including South Africa came up with a policy called the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The UN initiative main aim of this policy is to reduce RTIs by fifty percent of the expected number of fatalities by 2020 (Forjuoh, 2010, WHO, 2011). According to the World Health Organisation’s figures published in 2011, RTIs in South Africa have reached 8,646 or 1.45% of total deaths. The age adjusted Death Rate is 20.17 per 100,000 of population (WHO, 2011). The most vulnerable people who die include pedestrians, children, cyclists and older people.
This assignment will critically analyse the Decade of Action for Road Safety Policy in South Africa. Policy can be defined as a broad statement of goals, objectives and means that create the framework for activity. This framework often takes the form of explicit written documents but may also be implicit or unwritten (Buse et al 2012).
The main aim is to analyse how South Africa is or has responded to this policy. In other words, the assignment focuses on the Meso level analysis aspect of policy transfer (Hudson and Lowe 2009). In doing so the writer will use the Dolowitz and Mash Model 2000 cited in Hudson and Lowe 2009 to analyse the aspect of policy transfer. “Policy transfer analysis seeks to make sense of the cross cultural transfer of knowledge about institutions, policies or delivery systems from one sector or level of governance to another level of governance in a different country” (Evans, 2009 page 238).
The model (Dolowitz and Mash) was/is appropriate to analyse the Decade of Action for Road Safety Policy in South Africa because it is the most influential framework for the analysis of policy transfer (Dolowitz and Mash, 2000, p8). It centers on the analysis of six key questions which will be answered below.
Why did South Africa engage in Policy transfer of the Decade of Action for Road Safety?
The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 aims to save at least five million lives by bringing to an end the increasing trends in road traffic deaths and injuries (RTIs) world-wide (WHO, 2010, WHO, 2011, Forjuoh, 2010). Looking at the history of global death and injuries worldwide, governments of 90 countries including South Africa took a decision to increase action and interventions to tackle road safety incidents. One of the goals of the Centre for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) is to reduce the burden of Non Communicable Diseases (CDC Global Strategy 2012-2015). RTIs is a non-communicable disease which means that it not infectious (CDC Global Strategy 2012-2015)
The public transport system in South Africa is occupied by minibus taxis. It is the cheapest form of transport that pass into every city including the poorest shack communities (Arrive Alive, 2013). Unfortunately, Minibus taxis have provided some of the most serious threats to road safety. For example, in Mpumalanga alone, one mini bus taxi took the lives of 18 people on 1st of December 2011 (Road Safety Report, Feb 2012). A total of 1230 people died because of RTI’s between the first of December 2011 to the 10th of January 2012 (Road Safety Report, Feb 2012).
Using Dolowitz and Marsh Model framework cited in Hudson and Lowe 2009, policy transfer can be grouped under three headings namely voluntary transfer, coercive transfer, or a mixture of the two. It can be argued that South Africa responded to the global road traffic policy on the basis of a cohesive policy transfer. This means that there was direct imposition of the policy (Hudson and Lowe 2009). Again, this kind of policy transfer is more commonly found in lower –medium income countries where exterior organisations such as the United Nations, World Health Organisations, the World Bank or foreign investors use their power to impose policies in return for financial or practical assistance (Hudson and Lowe 2009).
Among the ninety UN Member States – South Africa took the historic decision to increase action to address the road safety crisis over the next ten years. During the decade, South Africa is supported by the WHO and the United Nations community to commit to actions in areas such as developing and impose legislation on main risk factors of RTI’s which are; limiting speed, reducing drink-driving, and increasing the use of seatbelts, child restraints and motorcycle helmets. The participating countries-including South Africa are encouraged to improve emergency trauma care, upgrade road and vehicle safety standards, promote road safety education and enhance road safety management generally (WHO, 2010).
On the other hand, South Africa may have voluntarily engaged in the Decade of Road Safety Policy because evidence shows that this policy was welcomed and organisations were willing to work towards the goal of reducing RTIs (Arrive Alive 2011 and WHO, 2010). The Arrive Alive (2011) campaign in South Africa states that “It is our privilege as the Arrive Alive.co.za Road Safety website to be part of the efforts to increase road safety awareness during the next decade. With this in mind we would like to share information about this initiative and share information provided by the World Health Organization” (Arrive Alive, 2011). Findings of WHO’s Global status on road safety 2009 confirmed the need of collection, analysing, interpretation and application of good data.
It works on the premise that effective road safety management is based on a systematic approach that includes the collection, analysis, interpretation and application of good data. In reality, however, road traffic data collection systems are not well developed in low and middle-income countries, where the majority of road traffic injuries occur. The findings of WHO’s Global status report on road safety (2009) confirmed the need for a manual dedicated to the collection and use of data for the prevention and control of road traffic injuries.
Who is involved?
The fact that Power is central to the nature of transfer processes means that it is important to raise the question of who is involved in the transfer (Hudson and Lowe 2009 pg 199). “Power is the ability to influence people, and in particular to control resources” (Buse et al 2012 p.21). Power involves managing relationships. Management is about improving actions, interventions, tasks, delivery of services (Gillam et al, 2012). Policy transfer requires two or more stakeholders to communicate the relevant information. However, translating the policy acknowledges the complexity of these communication patterns (Park et al 2014). Lenders and borrowers have a degree of power over the policy process.
In order for the Decade of Action for Road Traffic Policy to work effectively in South Africa there are many stakeholders involved. In policy analysis, actors may be called stake holders, interest groups or pressure groups (Buse et al, 2012). These stakeholders can be grouped into the three. The first group of stakeholders is the insiders. These are on the inside of South Africa’s political system such as politicians, the police and party official (Hudson and Lowe 2009). The Department of Transport in South Africa, has 12 public entities that delivers the Global Action for Road Safety (Department of Transport, South Africa, 2011). Some of these entities are Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), they make sure that the runaways for airplanes and the roads to and from the airports are in a good condition (Acsa, 2015). The Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA) was created to regulate cross border road transport by providing an excellent service through advising, facilitating and law enforcement (CBRTA, 2014). These and the other ten entities all report to the Minister of Transport. The insiders can deal with much bigger themes or share ideas and beliefs to reduce RTI’s.
The second group is the outsiders-these are groups such as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), pressure groups think tanks (Hudson and Lowe 2009). Looking back at the preparations of the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa, organisations such as the International Federation of Football (FIFA) played a major role in the development of Roads to and from the stadiums (CBRTA, 2014). However, other researchers such as Stone feels that NGOs manner of policy transfer is neglected in literature (Stone, 2012) NGOs played a very significant role in increasing road safety awareness. NGOs have an important input at grass roots level (World Bank, 2002).
The last group is the global players such as WHO, World Bank and the United Nations. The key role of the WHO in the Decade of Road Safety Policy is to persuade nations to adopt best practices (Hudson and Lowe 2009). As indicated earlier WHO and the UN aims to save at least five million lives by bringing to an end the increasing trends in road traffic deaths and injuries (RTIs) world-wide (WHO, 2010).
Where does the transferred policy originate from?
Policy from abroad could be transferred through different routes which includes professional, political contacts, research findings and conference papers (Duncan, 2009). Dolowitz and Mash 2000 make it clear that transfer can originate from many different places. They argue that transfer can occur within governments, so policies might be transferred from local authority to another or from the past. The Global of action for road traffic policy in South Africa originated from the United Nations and WHO (2010). Other scholars argue that there are no–boundaries of where policy transfer begins and ends, there is no evidence used to support claims of policy transfer (Evans, 2009).
However, in South Africa this policy was first transferred to the councils where there is/ was a high rate of RTIs like Kwa Zulu Natal (Global Road Safety Partnership, 2014). As Dolowitz (2000) stated that evidence such as media, the internet, reports and studies, meetings, visits and government statements could be used to evidence policy transfer. South Africa used all the above forms to evidence their adoption of the road traffic policy (Global Road Safety Partnership, 2014). This raised awareness of RTIs at a local level in South Africa especially in high risk areas.
What is being transferred and how complete is the transfer?
Although there are different stakeholders involved in the decade of action for road safety policy their input of what is being transferred can vary. Dolowitz argues that policy transfer is not an all or nothing process (Dolowitz, 2000, pg 25 cited in Hudson and Lowe 2012 p208). He suggested that a nation can copy the whole policy or the ideas behind it. This is what South Africa did, it transferred the ideas behind the Road Safety Policy. For example, they engaged in the road safety publicity campaign. A road safety publicity campaign is part of a set of activities that aim to promote safe road use. The ASPHEPHE (Zulu name for 'Let us be safe') project aims to address the risk factors of RTIs such as drinking, driving and speeding by using television adverts (Global Road Safety Partnership, 2014).
Park et al (2014) argues that policy leaders may distort the original meaning of the policy for self-interest reasons or to justify a pre-determined solution. There may be no communication between the lender and the borrower. However, in the case of the Decade of Action for Road Safety policy countries are expected to feedback to the WHO (WHO, 2011). Policy transfer analysts are also accused of failing to provide rigorous tools for evaluating whether policy transfer has occurred or not (Page, 2000). They also fail to advance an explanatory theory of policy development (James and Lodge 2003).
Leaders have an important part to play in ensuring policies are modified to contexts. Policy leaders need to understand and clarify the given contexts surrounding the policy processes, for example, communicating both with the lender and the borrower, the stakeholders (Park et al 2014). South Africa transferred part of the policy which was relevant and adaptable to the nation like strengthening road traffic injury data collection. It managed to promote collaboration among key stakeholders in road traffic safety (WHO, 2010). The reason for transferring this part of the policy could be as a result of both voluntary and cohesive action as stated earlier on.
What are the barriers to transfer and how successful is it?
The success and failure of a policy are overlooked aspects of policy transfer (Marsh and Sharman, 2009). The success of a transferred policy could be problematic to measure because it is difficult for all stakeholders to agree on whether or not any aspect of a policy is successful (Marsh and Sharman, 2009, pg 284). Copying a policy may produce a very different set of policy outcomes. Language can be a barrier to transfer a policy if it presents a true understanding of the original policy. South Africa has eleven official languages. Although English is understood in South Africa it is welcomed as a business and political language and is ranked as fifth home language.
Many policy transfers do go wrong during the translation process and there is a need to examine why some policy transfer is unsuccessful (Dolowitz and Mash 2006). The reason for this could be that nations or countries are not the same. For example, the way South Africa responded Decade of Action for Road Safety could be different from how its neighboring country Zimbabwe is or has responded. However, following the ASPHELE campaign (South Africa) there has been a 35 per cent reduction in RTIs in Kwa Zulu Natal province compared with 17 per cent for the rest of the country. It can be argued that there are concerns about the reporting of RTIs data in South Africa, the relative impact (18% greater reduction in the province) is consistent with statistically robust studies in Europe (Delhomme, 2005).
Differing institutions and structural settings can be an issue in terms of culture, practices or economic wealth. As stated earlier on South Africa has a population of about 53 million and the majority are living on almost a dollar per day (World Bank, 2013). Therefore, poverty and inequality remain widespread. The differing policy capabilities may face different policy networks that may well have different values and beliefs (Hudson and Lowe 2009).
The problem of policy complexity is another barrier to policy transfer (Dolowitz and Mash 2000). For example, what may seem as an effective policy may contradict what is, in truth, the complex and outcome of a series of interconnected factors (Hudson and Lowe 2000). The cause of this complexity may be that past policies act in close relationship with the policy being transferred therefore the country receiving the policy may have different issues that it needs to resolve (Hudson and Lowe 2000).
Lastly, transferring a policy could be challenging because of the different interests or values stakeholders may have. Misunderstandings and disagreements may lead to policy failure (Park, 2014).
Was the transfer a success/failure?
Evaluation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety is ongoing. So far there is evidence of the ASPHELE campaign (South Africa) which shows that there has been a 35 per cent reduction in RTIs in Kwa Zulu Natal province compared with 17 per cent for the rest of the country (Global Road Safety Partnership, 2014). Dolowitz and Mash model demonstrates that the role of policy transfer deepens one’s understanding of how the process operates and who and what is involved (Hudson and Lowe 2000). Lastly, other scholars argue that proving whether transfer has occurred can be problematic as there is weakness in the evidence to support policy transfer claims. They continue to argue that policy transfer analysts fail to make their research relevant to the world of practice (Evans, 2009).
In conclusion, the writer focused on the Meso level aspect of policy transfer to analyse how South Africa is/has responding to the Decade of Action for Road Safety Policy. She used the Dolowitz and Mash Model because it is/was the most influential framework for the analysis of policy transfer (Dolowitz and Mash, 2000, p8). There are many stakeholders involved in the transfer process. These stakeholders can be grouped into the three; namely the insiders, outsiders and the global players (Hudson and Lowe 2009). There are barriers South Africa faced during the policy transfer such as translating the policy into its local languages. The success of the transferred policy could be problematic to measure because copying a policy may produce a very different set of policy outcomes. Evaluation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety is ongoing. Nevertheless, evidence of the ASPHELE campaign (South Africa) shows reduction in RTIs.
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