Dear Editor,
I expect that worried citizens are relieved and hopeful to read that the President has issued a call for “a collective partnership to curb reckless use of the roads”. Especially in the wake of last weekend’s horrific accidents and fatalities. A framework for GoG policy makers to lower roadway risks and consequences will need to be underpinned by three essential elements:
1. Reliable accident data
2. A whole of government & society collaboration
3. Combining 1. & 2. to underpin and formulate a holistic strategy
Unfortunately, none of these elements have been sufficiently demonstrated in previous attempts at improving road safety. These will have to be encouraged and mentored by senior policy makers and other stakeholders.
Good data is critical for a thorough understanding of risk factors. Risk factors should include both contributory road hazard conditions, and errant driving behaviours. Everything that contributes to the vulnerabilities of roadway users. Data collection and analysis should be continuous. Tools should include geospatial mapping to pinpoint high risk points, and communities. It should also include sociological data, including various demographics, to identify and classify both high risk perpetrators, victims and cultural and societal contributors. A sociologist should serve on the data management and analysis team, and in policy development, to guide inputs on human behaviours, interactions, and other social and location influences.
Inclusive partnership with the right stakeholders is especially critical today for solving societal problems.
While the GPF can be the accountable agency, they should not initially be the lead agency. To date, the GPF has not shown sufficient understanding of how to leverage the private sector and broader civil society for innovative ways to transform and improve their operations, and their propensity and capacity to deliver improved results. It is not a reflection of any member of the Force leadership. It is just that the Guyana Police Force (and most public agencies), is not imbued with the culture and structure for collaborative approaches.
Holistic strategies that are formulated on evidence-based data and the appropriate collaborative platforms is critical for success. The right blend of using broader society for identifying the contributing risk factors, developing strategies, and implementation. Transformation of the Force (and most government agencies), and the broader security sector reform, must include new service provisioning models that are both “inside-out” and “outside-in” driven.
Perhaps the serious and seemingly intractable road safety issue, just one of society’s evolving challenges, can be acknowledged as surpassing the capacity of the public sector to address and solve. The President has publicly directed the Force to find solutions. Hopefully, his policy making team can envision an opportunity that government agencies can steer and shape the development of public–private platforms in a way that enables businesses and NGOs to pursue their own interests, whilst transforming business–NGO-government interactions, and more generally, serving collective interests and public value.
Sincerely,
Col. Brian Chin
Magua Risk Consulting Inc.