Across Africa, roads are being built at a record pace. From new trade corridors to urban highways to rural feeder networks, road infrastructure investment is seen as a catalyst for growth. But in too many cases, these new roads come with a hidden cost: they are unsafe by design.

In the Mano River Union (MRU) countries—Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire—road traffic fatalities remain alarmingly high. Poor road design is a major factor. Too often, children walk to school along the edges of highways. Cyclists ride unprotected next to fast-moving vehicles. Pedestrians’ cross busy roads without marked crossings. School zones lack signage. Dangerous curves go without barriers. And the result? Lives lost and injuries sustained—not by fate, but by design.

The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021–2030) recognizes this. Target 3 of the Decade calls on countries to ensure that:

"All new roads achieve technical standards for all road users, or meet a 3-star rating or better."

This is not an abstract goal. It is a call to action with immediate, practical implications:

• Safer Road designs
• Mandatory road safety audits
• Legal frameworks to enforce compliance
• Internationally benchmarked Star Ratings for all new road projects

When roads are designed with safety in mind, everyone benefits—especially the most vulnerable. But when they are built without safety, danger is embedded into the very fabric of national infrastructure.

RSAI’s Independent Evaluation of Target 3

As part of our ongoing evaluation of progress against the 12 Global Road Safety Targets, RSAI has conducted an independent review of Target 3 implementation across the MRU region. Our focus was clear: Are these countries building safe roads—or building future danger?

We evaluated progress based on three simple but powerful criteria:

• Presence of technical standards for all new roads that take account of ALL road-user safety
• Presence of systematic approaches to assess or audit new roads
• National law requiring a formal road safety inspection or assessment

This was not a theoretical review. We based our evaluation on:

• National Road design manuals
• Government Road agency reports
• The 2023 WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety
• iRAP Star Rating data
• RSAI field observations and stakeholder interviews
• Donor project frameworks (World Bank, GRSF, EU)

The Good News—and the Gaps

The good news:

• All MRU countries have taken initial steps toward safer design.
• Road safety audits are being conducted in many donor-supported projects.
• Awareness of the need for 3-star standards is growing.

But the gaps are serious—and dangerous:

• ❌ Not a single MRU country has passed a national law-making road safety audits mandatory.
• ❌ Guinea lags furthest behind, with no systematic audit process in place.
• ❌ Star Ratings (3-star or better) are not used as official policy targets anywhere in the MRU.
• ❌ Safety design standards remain inconsistently applied and lack enforcement.

In other words: progress exists—but it is fragile and fragmented.

Without legal mandates and national targets, road safety remains at the mercy of individual project managers and donor requirements. And unsafe designs, once built, become permanent hazards.