Good article today on road safety in Uganda from the Guardian website, drawing the connection between new/upgraded roads and rising road deaths http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/sep/08/news-life .
This comes from the Guardian's development project in the village of Katine in Uganda. Supported with funding from the paper's readership, the project has, over the past couple of years, examined in minute detail the impact of aid spending on people's lives. The impact of road development on trade, access to health care and other opportunities has been an important part of this analysis, and questions about road safety have risen up the agenda since a football tournament sponsored by the Guardian in June ended in tragedy http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/jun/14/football-fan-death-katine-crash . The economic context, and potential dangers, of the new road cutting through Katine is also well explored in this article by John Vidal http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/apr/09/soroti-lira-juba-road .
The slogan of the Katine project is 'It starts with a village'. Perhaps a wider understanding and visibility for the vital need to build road safety into road development will also start with this village.
