LocationsRethinking road safety in Montenegro
Summary:
Road safety is a major issue in Montenegro. According to data published by the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro: 83,077 traffic accidents happened in Montenegro over the past 11 years. In other words, there were 21 accidents every day or one accident every 68 minutes. With 10.4 fatalities per 100.000 inhabitants, Montenegro is one of the countries with the highest number of persons killed in traffic accidents in Europe. In 2017 alone, there were more than 5,600 traffic accidents, with 63 persons killed and another 2,600 lightly or seriously injured. In 2018, 48 persons lost their lives in traffic accidents, while 2.563 persons were lightly or seriously injured.
Traffic Accidents Cost Analysis conducted by UNDP showed that the cost of one lost human life in Montenegro amounts to cca 225,000.00 EUR. These costs are calculated by summing up medical costs, production loss, human costs, property damage, administrative and other costs. Total costs of traffic accidents in Montenegro varied between 30 and 36.5 million EUR annually during the period 2012-2016, which represented almost 1% of GDP. This proves that even a moderate investment in Montenegrin road safety would mean saving lives, but also significant financial resources.
Objectives:
The fact that the average number of fatalities in Montenegro is still twice higher than in the EU (28 EU countries, 2016 - mortality rate of 5.1) indicates that efforts need to be invested in order to improve the road safety situation in the country. The change we want to achieve is to reduce the overall number of traffic accident deaths and injuries in Montenegro, which is in line with SDG 3 – Good health and well-being, target 3.6 - By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents. We plan to do so by testing an innovative model - Social Impact Bond (SIB) – as a way of raising money for road safety reforms.
The road safety has been selected as Montenegro’s first pilot for SIB modality, which purported to open an innovative way to engage private sector to invest into road safety improvement in the country and thus bolster global sustainability together with public sector. The value added of this idea is “pay for success” principle, which means that the Government and tax payers pay only for the intervention that is successful and yields results.
Activities:
- Scoping mission conducted and Inception report for the Project produced;
- Road Safety Assessment
- Cost Analysis of Traffic Accidents
- Analysis of the Role of Insurance Companies, Organization of Driving Schools and Technical Safety of Vehicles in Montenegro prepared by the Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses (ISSP);
- Hands-on SIB Feasibility Workshop - Defining Potential Interventions and Mapping Stakeholders for SIB Design in Montenegro held on 22-23 March in Podgorica, gathering all the relevant stakeholders in the area of road safety;
- Feasibility Report “Better, Safer Roads for Montenegro: Financing Improved Road Safety Outcomes using SIB” delivered by Social Finance UK, delineating possible SIB models in the field of road safety to be implemented in Montenegro;
- Legal Analysis of SIB Concept Implementation Feasibility in Montenegro.
Results:
The expected result of the project was achieved in terms of conducting the necessary analyses of the road safety situation in Montenegro, structuring the gathered data. Based on the obtained results, next step was to determine whether it is possible to implement SIB instrument in the country, within the existing normative framework, socio-economic circumstances and other relevant factors. Also, having in mind the positive results of the legal and feasibility studies on SIB implementation in Montenegro, subject to the interest of potential outcome funders and investors to participate in pioneering this mechanism, the space is open for devising the potential Road Safety Impact model and identifying possible stakeholders in its piloting.
This project has been continued in 2019 by the UN RC Office and WHO, in cooperation with NGO Digitalizuj.me, through the initiative, whose goal is to motivate entrepreneurs to become interested into this issue and invest efforts to resolve it, using technology and innovation. The initiative will purport to engage students or employees of innovative companies, problem solvers.
Relevant links:
Blog post: Rethinking road safety – investing to save people’s lives
