DRSC News
An independent evaluation has confirmed our impact over 14 years
Delft Road Safety Courses is entering its 15th year of operation since beginning in 2012, during which time we have organized around 20 courses and taught more than 600 graduates from over 90 countries around the world. We are delighted to share this overview of achievement and impact, setting out our aim, mission, and whether we are achieving our desired goal.
The activity of Delft Road Safety Courses (DRSC) has always been driven by our mission to support the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Plan of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030.
The work of DRSC focuses on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which account for more than 90% of all road traffic deaths worldwide, and is driven by the knowledge that the disproportionate impact of such preventable incidents causes substantial pain and grief for individuals, families, and communities as well as significant social, economic, and environmental costs.
The report shows how our capacity development and training activities across the globe have helped, and continue to help, to build safe and sustainable transport systems, which have been proven as key drivers to improving economic development, access to education, gender equality, health and wellbeing, as well as mitigating the impacts of climate change.
This impact evaluation seeks to summarise DRSC’s activities and assess our impact through interviewing of some of our most successful alumni about how participating in DRSC courses has impacted their careers and the work of their organizations.
The report presents the case for why road safety is an important issue, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and what role capacity development programs can play in tackling such an issue. It describes the activities of DRSC, its mission and the centrality of the Safe System Approach in our teaching as well as focusing on assessing the impact(s) of DRSC through the testimonies of ten alumni of different editions of the course. Several recurring themes emerged from these testimonies that show DRSC to go above and beyond its mission, including:
- Beyond technicisms, DRSC offers a multidisciplinary and broad perspective of road safety.
- Beyond knowledge, DRSC supports the creation of a network of people committed to road safety.
- Beyond the courses, alumni perpetuate the knowledge they acquired in their countries and organisations.
Overall, the report, which was produced independently by Decisio Italia concludes that:
“The activities of DRSC show a global coverage and wide audience. The variety of courses, based on solid principles and best road safety practices, were appreciated and considered effective by the alumni. Moreover, the reach of DRSC was found to extend beyond its training activities, proving to be a source of inspiration and helping with the construction of a sprawling network of road safety professionals.”
As we look to the future, DRSC will strive to build on what we have learned and scale up our impact. From next year, we will expand our alumni engagement programme and provide new opportunities to DRSC course participants to initiate their own local capacity building activities and initiatives to teach the Safe System Approach, in both professional and academic contexts in their home countries.
