17 November 2022, Durban, South Africa – as part of UNITAR’s ongoing capacity-building efforts on Road Safety and ahead of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a series of capacity-building workshops in different Provinces of South Africa on Strengthening National Road Safety Strategies: UNITAR’s Management Practices for Safer Roads Toolkit were held throughout the week.

In close collaboration with UNITAR’s affiliated training Centre in South Africa -CIFAL Durban- and the support of AB InBev, the workshops offered training to 348 law enforcement officials from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) in cities of 4 South African Provinces: East London and Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province; Bloemfontein, Free State Province; Johannesburg, Gauteng Province; Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province between the 11th and 18th of November 2022.

The provincial capacity-building workshops intended to strengthen national capacity for developing local strategies to improve existing road infrastructure for the benefit of all road users, especially the most vulnerable, and to equip participants with the appropriate methodology and tools to accomplish this.

The workshop enabled road safety stakeholders to interact in dynamic dialogues and practical exercises, to further strengthen their knowledge in:

1. Main issues, trends, and challenges related to road safety worldwide and in South Africa.
2. United Nations global frameworks and targets related to road safety, such as the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, to recognize road safety as an urgent priority.
3. UNITAR’s Management Practices for Safer Roads Toolkit: Principles and benefices of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) problem-solving methodology for addressing road safety. 
4. Lessons learned from pilot cities implementing the Toolkit to reduce road traffic crashing in hazardous locations.

At the end of the workshops, UNITAR opened a call for expressions of interest in technical assistance for the implementation of the Toolkit’s methodology in cities.