Last year, when I started working on the road safety issue in Montenegro, I knew as much about it as any other citizen (check my first blog post on this topic). I knew the situation was far from perfect, but in the absence of reliable statistics, I couldn’t even imagine the reality was so grim. When we conducted the first comprehensive analyses, I had to face the facts. I just flicked through the Road Safety Assessment and realized it was time to shake off complacency and create the sense of urgency….

These numbers speak for themselves:  

• Over the past decade, Montenegro lost 873 lives on the road.
  
• 4,857 people were seriously injured, while more than 30,646 slightly injured over the last decade.
• For the past 10 years, there were 83,077 traffic accidents in total.
• Almost every hour, there’s at least one accident; i.e. more than 20 a day!
• The death toll is the worst among the youngest and the oldest – most of fatalities belong to 25-35 and over 65 age group. 
• In respect to gender, men account for 82% of people killed on the roads in 2016.
• If we look at 2016 only: With 10.4 traffic accident fatalities per 100.000 inhabitants -  this is twice higher than the EU average mortality rate of 5.1.  

Montenegro nearly holds the inglorious record of being one of the countries in Europe most seriously affected by road traffic accidents. Nothing to be proud of! We may be leaders in the region in so many things, but we cannot afford to stand still and do nothing about this!

In its national Road Safety Improvement Strategy (2010-2019), Montenegro defined its short-term goals as follows:

• Decrease the number of fatalities by 30% up to 2014 compared with 2007 (122 cases);
• Decrease the number of seriously injured by 20% up to 2014 in comparison with 2007 (583 cases);
• If we look at 2016 data and compare the number of fatalities (65) and seriously injured (483) to 2007, we could say these targets have been achieved. When compared with 2007, the number of fatalities dropped by 46.7 percent. Despite this, when compared with other countries in Europe, the toll of dead and injured on the roads is still unacceptably high.

Who is most affected?

I don’t really enjoy reading newspapers, as road accidents are unavoidable part of our daily news. Horrific pictures on cover pages always remind me of the words uttered by a reputable road traffic engineer who advocated for more “bloody” photos and videos in the media, because he believed it would teach people a lesson. Although I have my doubts about this approach, all efforts are worth a try, given that the current situation is far from normal and ordinary.

To bring attention to these issues, UNDP invested efforts in putting together a so-called “economic argument” for nudging the Government of Montenegro into preventing accidents, instead of treating their consequences. We’re aware that people consider it unseemly to even discuss the costs of traffic accidents when human lives are at stake. But there’s no choice, we have to face the truth: every traffic accident hurts not only the victims who participated in it, but also affects the entire society, whose members pay for the consequences in so many ways! The costs of traffic accidents are calculated by summing up the medical costs, production loss, human costs, property damage, administrative and other costs.

So, if one still wonders, the fact that the total costs of traffic accidents in Montenegro varied between 30 and 36.5 million EUR during the period 2012-2016, which represented almost 1% of GDP is quite a sobering one. To give you a more “concrete” example: the cost per a fatality in the observed period amounted was in the region of 226,000, as per the Cost Analysis of Traffic Accidents in Montenegro conducted by UNDP Montenegro. These are just the actual measurable costs, and does not account for the toll on human suffering and pain.

Knowing the truth, what can we do about it? Sadly, the situation worldwide has not changed significantly over the past decade. In the words of Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) Foundation and a member of the UK Parliament, “the world’s leading cause of death for young people between 15 and 29 years is finally recognized as a global development issue, with a stand-alone target in the Sustainable Development Goals.” He called for the legislators throughout the world to support establishment of a new global road safety fund.

Mobilizing funds for ending poverty and hunger is not an easy task, let alone for other pressing priorities in the world. We at UNDP in Montenegro are aware of this, but have also been brave enough to try and experiment. This is why we are testing an innovative instrument – Social Impact Bond and we are looking up to the United Kingdom as the world leader in this area. David Hutchison, Chief Executive of Social Finance UK, a charity which pioneered SIB in 2010 with Peterborough pilot stated that “SIBs are an opportunity for governments to spend money on outcomes, rather than inputs. Governments want their money to be used prudently (… and) if they are not on the hook for funding failures, they may be more willing to let charities experiment with new ways of helping others.”

Instead of preparing a Feasibility Study, which could end up as a “dead letter on paper” (another document that will end up in a drawer), UNDP gathered everyone that has something to do with road safety, all national key players that have a stake in this, but also some international actors - SIB and road traffic experts, to see how SIB design works in practice.

And, this is how we hope that our project will pave the path and open new avenues to kick-start SIB implementation journey. This could bring many benefits not only to Montenegrin citizens, but our country could become a pioneer and help others scale-up the model. A human life saved is the best possible motivation, so none of us has an excuse not to do something small to help save the lives of so many.   

***

Road Safety is a joint initiative of UNDP in Montenegro and our partners at the UNDP Innovation Facility, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and Development Impact Group. This initiative was funded by the Government of Denmark.