Winners of ARSO’s #Roads4Life Storytelling Contest
Congratulations #Roads4Life Champions! The winners of the African Road Safety Observatory's #Roads4Life storytelling contest are:
- Road safety leadership: Roads for Life in Zimbabwe
- Innovations for road safety: App for Improving Road Accident Responses in Cameroon
- Personal stories of taking a stand to address road safety issues: Botswana’s Donkey Carts Story
- Notable mention under Personal Stories: Chris Kaganzi’s Start Over Initiative in Uganda
With the goal of changing Africa’s road safety narrative, SSATP with the support of the African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), European Union (EU), World Bank Group (WBG) and the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), with funding from UKAid, launched the African Road Safety Observatory's #Roads4Life storytelling contest and social media campaign to generate awareness on Africa’s road safety crisis and identify road safety champions who are working hard to make Africa’s roads safer.
In total, SSATP received more than 150 story submissions and organically reached more than 16.9 million people worldwide. Needless to say, choosing the most inspirational and transformative stories was no easy feat!
While the original plan was to select a winner for each format type (comic, video, or written story), we received very few comic submissions. As such, a decision was made to select a winner for each of the following focus areas:
- Road safety leadership in countries and communities, such as successful communication campaigns, education and training programs
- Innovations for road safety, such as data-driven interventions that are working to improve road safety in African communities
- Personal stories of taking a stand to address day-to-day road safety issues, including existing road safety challenges and concrete demands to address them
A selection committee consisting of seven communications, transport and road safety experts evaluated all of the submitted stories based on their adherence to contest rules as well as (a) clarity, (b) the quality of information provided, (c) the relevance of the activity regarding road safety, and (d) the results and impact of the intervention.
Here’s what some of the judges had to say about the contest entries:
“I’m really excited at the quality of inputs and the ability to showcase some great work going on around Africa and see some real commitment to improving road safety.” – Tawia Addo-Ashong, Road Safety Pillar Lead, SSATP
“I laughed; I cried…” – Cara Santos Pianesi, Communications Lead for Infrastructure Finance, PPPs & Guarantees, World Bank
“Thank you for the opportunity to hear voices from different African countries on this agenda. I felt like I just traveled through Africa.” Hanayo Taguchi, Senior Operations Assistant, Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF)