AfRSO News

African Road Safety Observatory Concludes Three-Day Transitional Steering Committee Meeting in Cape Town

Cape Town, South Africa, 18 December 2025

The African Road Safety Observatory (AfRSO), under the auspices of the African Union Commission (AUC), has successfully concluded a three-day meeting of its Transitional Steering Committee (TSC) in Cape Town, South Africa, from 16 to 18 December 2025. The meeting was hosted in collaboration with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) of South Africa, under the Department of Transport (DoT).

The meeting brought together the seven members of the TSC, representatives of the African Union Commission and the AfRSO Secretariat, AU member States, development partners such as the EU, GIZ, and WHO, and key regional road safety stakeholders, including UNECA. The gathering built on previous milestones, including the TSC meeting in Eswatini in April 2025, held on the sidelines of the Kofi Anna Road Safety Award, and provided a strategic platform to review progress in 2025 and to guide the implementation of AfRSO’s work during the 2026–2027 biennium, in line with the African Road Safety Action Plan (2021–2030) and the African Road Safety Charter. This year’s meeting was centered on advancing AfRSO’s six strategic outputs.

Opening remarks underscored Africa’s continued disproportionate burden of road traffic fatalities and the urgent need for coordinated data-driven action. The TSC members reaffirmed the central role of AfRSO in strengthening evidence-based policymaking, improving data collection systems and harmonization aligned with miniAfRSO indicators, and supporting member States in reducing road traffic deaths and serious injuries by at least 50 percent by 2030, in line with AU Agenda 2063 and global commitments under the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety (SDGs 3.6).

Over the course of the 3-day meeting, the Committee reviewed and assessed AfRSO’s progress in 2025, including the operationalization of the interim Secretariat, development of AfRSO branding, rollout of the data collection and visualization portal, and capacity-building for National Data Coordinators (NDCs) across the continent. Updates were also provided on ongoing in-country reviews of road safety data systems and on preparations for the 2026 edition of the Africa Road Safety Status Report.

​ The event highlighted Africa’s urgent need to tackle the leading cause of death among youth, which claims over 250,000 lives each year, despite the continent’s low levels of motorisation. Key thematic sessions focused on strengthening road safety data collection systems, improving governance and policy implementation, and enhancing institutional capacity at the national and regional levels to improve the effectiveness of road safety interventions. Member states shared practical experiences implementing provisions of the African Road Safety Charter, including vehicle import regulations, national road safety strategies, data management systems, road safety audits, and protection of vulnerable road users.

The TSC further deliberated on the AfRSO Work Programme for the 2026–2027 biennium, including resource requirements, funding strategies and mechanisms for strengthened coordination between the TSC, the AfRSO Secretariat, and development partners. The Committee provided strategic guidance to ensure the sustainability and effective delivery of AfRSO’s six core outputs, covering institutional development, visibility, data and policy coordination, capacity building and high-level engagement.

The meeting concluded with the endorsement of key priority activities and recommendations aimed at accelerating the work of AfRSO.   Participants also took part in a technical excursion led by the RTMC and the Cape Town Traffic Management Centre (TMC). This excursion showcased practical road safety interventions and enforcement strategies implemented at both city and provincial levels. It highlighted the use of advanced traffic monitoring technologies, real-time data analytics and integrated safety systems, providing tangible examples of urban road crash measures and congestion data management, both aligned with AfRSO’s overarching objectives.