Studies

Safe Road for Women and Girls: Lesson Learnt From an Intervention of BRAC

This study assessed the Safe Road for Women and Girls (SRWG) project which was initiated by BRAC Road Safety Programme in partnership with Gender Justice and Diversity Programme (GJ&D), to identify its strengths and weaknesses, and suggest ways forward for scale-up of the intervention. The qualitative study was conducted Gazipur and Tangail, and found that incorporating the road safety awareness campaign within internal systems of institutions was effective, for example, using school assembly as a dissemination platform. It also found that many transport workers simply lack the knowledge and awareness about safe and gender-responsive behavior in this sector; for this group, awareness training was useful.

Researchers:  Salma A Shafi; Maheen Sultan; Kabita Chawdhury; Rumana Ali; Saklain Al Mamun; Taslima Akhter

Partners: BRAC

Timeline: 2017-2020

Status: Completed

Contact: Maheen Sultan; maheen.sultan@bracu.ac.bd

Context

Road safety is one of the key concerns for citizens from all walks of life. Apart from the concern relating to the rising number of road fatalities causing death, disability and trauma to human beings, the safety and security of human mobility have significant values from the economic and empowerment point of view. 

Taking this reality as well as the need of creating gender-responsive public space under consideration, BRAC Road Safety Programme in partnership with Gender Justice and Diversity Programme (GJ&D) initiated a 3-year pilot project called Safe Road for Women and Girls (SRWG) in 2017. The project will end in February 2020.    

BRAC Road Safety Program and the Gender Justice and Diversity (GJ&D) program felt the need to conduct research in order to gather the lessons learned from SRWG with the aim of scaling up the project with necessary revisions and improvements. In doing so, BRAC GJ&D and Road Safety Programme (RSP) approached BIGD to conduct a study aiming to review the pilot project.  BIGD was interested in carrying out the study to further deepen its work on gender-responsive transport, public space, and safe mobility as well as to strengthen their working relationship with BRAC. 

Objectives

This study aimed to identify the lessons learned from the on-going project to develop and design the new intervention. Therefore, the study identified the strengths and weaknesses of the project activities. The findings of this lesson learning exercise are expected to guide the scale-up of the intervention with necessary revisions and additions. 

Our research question was to find out what worked well and what did not in the pilot intervention and why. In order to do so, the research examined its design, approach, activities, materials produced and results obtained. 

This study is relevant to SDG 5 (Gender Equality), particularly to achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls

Research Design

This study employed a qualitative research approach to achieve its objectives. The population of this study included the participants and all relevant participants and stakeholders of this project. Therefore, the information was gathered from respondents such as students, teachers, heads of educational institutions, district road safety committee, Upazila road safety committee, community people, young women who were provided with training on driving and employment, drivers, supervisors, helpers participating in the intervention, member of the transport association and road safety group, and the police.

Data was collected from Gazipur and Tangail. In-Depth Interviews (IDI), Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were used as data collection techniques. 

Findings and Recommendations 

Ownership is important in ensuring better road safety. We found that working with the government’s district road safety committees (DRSC) was effective; the project secured their commitment to their action plan. However, for DRSC to be more effective, they need some additional authority, for example, holding mobile courts. We also found that incorporating the road safety awareness campaign within internal systems of institutions was effective, for example, using school assembly as a dissemination platform. We also found that many transport workers simply lack the knowledge and awareness about safe and gender-responsive behaviour in this sector; for this group, awareness training was useful. We also found that creating a sense of professionalism and pride among transport workers, as key players for maintaining safe roads for all, can also be effective. 

Awareness training about sexual harassment on the road has been found to be helpful in raising women’s voices and increasing their mobility. The women drivers trained by the project are acting as role models for other women to join this traditionally male-dominated sector.

Going forward, we recommend empowering women to speak up against safety, harassment, and violence issues and creating awareness among the public, government authorities, and stakeholders in the transport sector. We also recommend empowering the local authorities to be more effective in making roads safer for women.

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