The Ethiopian Roads Administration (ERA) is advancing a pilot road safety assessment in partnership with the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), marking a key step toward establishing a national road safety initiative known as EthiopiaRAP.
The initiative aims to systematically identify high-risk roads across the country and prioritize infrastructure improvements to reduce road crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries.
The project is being led by the Transport and Road Safety Research Team at the ERA Road Research Centre, which is currently conducting a detailed safety assessment of one of the administration’s major road corridors. According to iRAP, the pilot is expected to strengthen local technical capacity to identify road safety risks and guide evidence-based infrastructure improvements.
The initiative forms part of a three-party Memorandum of Understanding signed in June 2026 between ERA, the Road Safety Insurance Fund Service (RSIFS), and iRAP. The partnership seeks to address Ethiopia’s significant road safety challenges, with World Health Organization estimates indicating that more than 21,000 people die in road crashes in the country each year.
As part of the assessment, technical teams are conducting comprehensive road surveys, collecting high-resolution video footage, and gathering supporting data, including vehicle speed measurements and traffic volume counts for motorized vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists.
This information will be used to code road attributes and generate iRAP Star Ratings, providing an objective assessment of road safety conditions for different categories of road users.
Following the assessment, the team plans to produce Star Rating maps and develop a tailored Safer Roads Investment Plan (SRIP). The plan will identify and prioritize cost-effective infrastructure improvements intended to deliver the greatest possible reduction in road deaths and serious injuries.
Tesfamicheal Chala, a road and transport engineer at the ERA Road Research Centre, expressed optimism about the progress being made toward improving road safety and making journeys safer for people across Ethiopia.
According to iRAP’s Safety Insights Explorer, achieving United Nations road safety Target 4—ensuring that more than 75 percent of travel takes place on roads meeting at least a three-star safety standard by 2030—could prevent an estimated 9,385 road fatalities annually in Ethiopia.
The assessment highlights the potential benefits of upgrading road infrastructure to meet internationally recognized safety standards. According to the same estimates, improvements implemented over a 20-year treatment lifespan could prevent more than two million deaths and serious injuries while generating economic benefits estimated at $2.2 billion.
The projected benefits represent an estimated return of $11.80 for every dollar invested, underscoring the potential economic and social value of targeted road safety improvements.
The pilot assessment is expected to provide a foundation for expanding systematic road safety evaluations and investment planning across Ethiopia.
