Amend just released Step Change: an Action Agenda on Safe Walking for Africa’s Children, our report on the current state of roads and new safe-journeys strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa. With help from our partners the FIA Foundation and Child Health Initiative, we take a deep look at how a burgeoning population, economic growth, and urbanization affect mobility in Africa, with emphasis on how all journeys can be made safe for children.
Step Change revolves around Amend’s central principles: data collection, evidence-based planning, affordable solutions, collaboration, and education. The report begins with the real-life story of a family afflicted by traffic injury, followed by a foreword from Amend ally and road safety advocate Zoleka Mandela, whose family has also suffered grievous road-traffic trauma.
From there, Step Change outlines why Africa’s roads — from highways to byways — are some of the world’s most unsafe for every type of road user, especially child pedestrians. It examines chronic problems with data collection in Africa, defines the real human cost of unsafe streets, and presents multiple case studies in cities around the region. The report also introduces a walking-rights agenda that supports the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Step Change shows how, with enlightened and practical civil engineering and education, the poorest and the most vulnerable among us do not need to become victims. Ultimately, our strategies to make mobility accessible and safe also support cleaner air, improved individual health, and equity for all.
Download Step Change here.