Safe Schools Africa has organised its first regional forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, bringing together more than 80 people who are working within major development bank-funded road projects to ensure safe infrastructure for children.
 
Government officials from 7 African countries, teams from 8 Safe Schools Africa projects, and representatives from the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, the World Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa transport programme SSATP, and the African Development Bank participated. Safe Schools Africa is an initiative led by the NGO Amend, the Agence Française de Développement and the FIA Foundation.

Rogatus Mativila, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Infrastructure of Tanzania, led the host country delegation, alongside Engineer Humphrey Kanyenye, of the urban and rural roads agency TARURA which, through its RISE project funded by the World Bank, has prioritised in-depth community consultation, equity considerations and safe road design in planning and delivering road improvements. Crucially, the Bank and country teams have successfully made the case that higher initial costs for the project design will reap rewards in reducing injury costs downstream. For this innovative work TARURA received Safe Schools Africa’s Pioneer Award 2025. 

Senior highway officials and project implementation teams, including Amend staff working in each country, shared their experiences of integrating safe school infrastructure – safe crossings, sidewalks, speed bumps and speed signage – as part of multi-million dollar road corridor schemes. The goal is to scale up Amend’s award-winning School Area Road Safety Assessments and Improvements (SARSAI), using mass action and development financing to identify and remediate danger at multiple schools on each corridor, benefitting tens of thousands of children.
 
Spurred by a compelling speech from Ghanian trauma surgeon Dr Nkechi Dike on the reality of child traffic injury, delegates reviewed progress and obstacles to child protection. The forum heard detailed project progress on live road schemes from Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania and Zambia. Officials from Kenya and Senegal also participated. 

On day two attention switched to practical demonstration of SARSAI’s potential, at a ceremony and ribbon-cutting for new sidewalks, speed bumps, signage and a raised and protected zebra crossing at Sinza Maalum Primary School in Dar. Dignitaries joined pupils to inaugurate the new safe infrastructure. Now the challenge is to multiply the effort hundredfold as African infrastructure development continues to grow at pace, bringing millions of children into daily contact with fast traffic.

(Photos credit: Edward Echwalu)