Vehicle Type-Approval & Road Worthiness Test in Togo
With only 2% of the world’s vehicles but 16% of road fatalities, Africa has been hit particularly hard by the global road safety crisis. With this highest per capita rate of road fatalities in the world, road road deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to more than double, from some 243,000 deaths projected for 2015 to 514,000 by 2030.
Considering that one of the pillars of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 is devoted in particular to vehicle safety, the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) and CITA have agreed to work together to formalise and improve vehicle compliance and monitoring procedures. This collaboration aims to strengthen national capacities in low and middle-income countries in order to improve road safety, as well as to intensify the coordination of funding and activities to be promoted.
To that end, they have committed to developing projects known as AVIS (Assessment of Vehicle Inspection Systems).
The overall objective of the AVIS projects is to carry out audits of vehicle inspection systems in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and Togo has been selected as the first country where this audit is to be carried out. Therefore, the study conducted in Togo is considered as the pilot for the AVIS programme, with the purpose of applying the methodology developed for Togo to the other countries included in the AVIS programme.
This project includes a two-week field mission to collect the information required to perform the assessment. The information was collected during a series of meetings with the various stakeholders, both public and private entities, that are involved in the management of road infrastructure, vehicle importation and fleet management, and traffic safety.
From the analysis of the current situation in Togo regarding vehicle inspection, the final report led to a set of recommendations aimed at improving the reliability of road transport and traffic safety.
These recommendations are divided into three categories:
- Requirements for vehicles entering the country. Vehicles should be registered once it has been confirmed that they meet the specific technical requirements in terms of traffic and environmental safety;
- Capacity building for the DTRF ((Directorate of Road and Railway Transport of Togo) to manage periodic technical inspections. It is proposed to build a framework that will allow the administration to better organise and monitor vehicle reception and inspection activities, and to provide training for their staff;
- Upgrading of the existing inspection stations, including the size of the network, for example by building up new inspection lines.
The entire report was published last 19 July and it can be found on CITA website, as well as on the GRSF webpage.