Countries: Uganda
Webinar slides: Diversifying Uganda’s Professional Driver Workforce
As part of the BMZ funded Professional Driver Training – Uganda 2 (PDT-U II), Transaid and Safe Way Right Way have sought to improve the gender imbalance within Uganda’s transport industry by bringing more women through professional bus and truck driver training and supporting them into employment.
Women face many obstacles in becoming professional drivers such as the prohibitive cost of training, a licence progression system that favours men, and discriminating work environments.
In this webinar we discussed the approaches taken during the programme, and highlighted the insights and learnings that were gathered.
Click below to download the webinar slides.
Webinar slides: HVT corridors, and potential solutions to identifying and preventing human trafficking
This slide deck was used during the webinar “HVT corridors, and potential solutions to identifying and preventing human trafficking”. The webinar first broadcasted on 28.11.2022 and was the final dissemination event for a research project that investigated the impact on social inclusion of high-volume transport corridors, and potential solutions to identifying and preventing human trafficking.
The aim of this project was to broaden understandings of the relationship between human trafficking and long-distance transport corridors and cross-border posts in sub-Saharan Africa. This research was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through the High-Volume Transport (HVT) applied research programme (2017–2023), which is managed by IMC Worldwide Ltd (IMC).
Click below to download the slide deck.
Manual for Trainers: Human Trafficking Training Manual for Vehicle Operators
This training manual is an output of the research project “An Investigation into the Impact on Social Inclusion of High Volume Transport (HVT) Corridors and Potential Solutions to Identifying and Preventing Human Trafficking”.
This training manual outlines a training approach that can be used to:
- Train drivers and related vehicle operators (i.e. conductors and turn-boys) in human trafficking and steps that can be taken to combat it;
- Increase vehicle operators’ awareness of human trafficking, their ability to recognise it and their confidence to respond appropriately.
This manual focuses on Uganda. However, it can easily be adapted for use in other countries.
The research was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through the High Volume Transport (HVT) applied research programme (2017–2023), and was implemented by a consortium led by DT Global Emerging Markets UK Ltd and included Transaid, North Star Alliance and Scriptoria.
COVID-19 Fact Sheet – FIND “COVID-19 rapid antigen test screening validation and diagnosis study in symptomatic and asymptomatic populations at border crossings in Uganda to support efficient testing practices” Project
The project aims to provide access to fast, quality COVID-19 screening for truck drivers at select border crossings in Uganda. The initiative aims to help reduce the spread and impact of COVID-19 and lessen the economic burden on transport companies by offering rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. If the evidence supports national policy change, Phase 2 will only require drivers to take an RDT test.
Following a training provided by Transaid and Safe Way Right Way (SWRW) in the target areas of Busia and Malaba, transport associations operating near the two target border posts carried out sensitisation of arriving and departing national and international truck drivers per border crossing about the study as well as about basic COVID-19 information including signs and symptoms, prevention, what to do if you have symptoms and the importance of vaccines.
These messages were included in the COVID-19 fact sheets below, which were distributed to drivers during sensitisation to raise around COVID-19 symptoms and safe practices.
Click below to download the fact sheets.
Report: An Investigation into the Impact on Social Inclusion of High Volume Transport (HVT) Corridors and Potential Solutions to Identifying and Preventing Human Trafficking
This report presents the findings of the research project entitled “An Investigation into the Impact on Social Inclusion of High Volume Transport (HVT) Corridors and Potential Solutions to Identifying and Preventing Human Trafficking”. The research is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through the High Volume Transport (HVT) applied research programme (2017–2023), which is managed by IMC Worldwide Ltd (IMC). The research aims to broaden understanding of the relationship between human trafficking and long-distance transport corridors and cross-border posts in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a topic on which little research has been carried out to date. The research, which focuses on Uganda and Tanzania, began in July 2020 and data collection took place over the period January to August 2021.
In September 2021, the project’s Research Strategy Reference Group (RSRG), which comprises key stakeholders from government, civil society and private sectors, was invited to review the preliminary findings of the research and feed into the discussions about implications for policy and practice. Their views are reflected in and integrated throughout this report.
The research findings indicate that there is a case for investing in anti-TIP interventions whenever an HVT road is built or a formal border post established. This should be an automatic consideration as part of the mainstreaming of social inclusion into major infrastructure projects.
Click below to read the full report.
Technical Brief: Establishing a Sustainable Model for Professional Driver Training in Uganda
This technical brief presents the details of the PDT-U project, which was implemented in partnership with the Ugandan Government and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Norwegian Agency for Working in cooperation with industry partners.
The project’s aims were to increase the employment opportunities of Ugandan drivers in the transport sector while improving road safety in Uganda, using the EAC standardised curriculum (developed by Transaid in 2015 as a template for training) to build the capacity of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and passenger service vehicle (PSV) driver training in Uganda.
Click below to read the full brief.
Technical Brief: Empowering road freight transport operators to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
Since 2016, Transaid’s Professional Driver Training – Uganda project (PDTU) has been working to improve the capacity of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and passenger service vehicle (PSV) drivers in Uganda. The COVID-19 pandemic, first recorded in Uganda in March 2020, has added a number of new challenges for professional truck drivers at a time when the need to maintain vital supplies of foods, medicines and other essential assistance is increasingly falling to road transporters.
Despite the risk of exposure, truck drivers have continued to work through unpredictable and deteriorating working conditions, whilst facing increased scrutiny and stigma particularly at the beginning of the pandemics when many of the new cases of COVID-19 being reported in Uganda were from long distance drivers being tested at the borders.
Between August and November 2020, Transaid and Safe Way Right Way partnered with transporter unions in Uganda to produce truck driver-specific COVID-19 information and key road safety messaging in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This information was distributed together with a package of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) by specially trained Field Officers to 3,994 cross border truck drivers from 9 different countries as part of wider sensitisation campaign.
To read this brief, please click below.
Literature Review: An Investigation into the Impact on Social Inclusion of High Volume Transport Corridors and Potential Solutions to Identifying and Preventing Human Trafficking
This report presents a literature review and annotated bibliography undertaken as part of the research project: An Investigation into the Impact on Social Inclusion of High Volume Traffic (HVT) Corridors, and Potential Solutions to Identifying and Preventing Human Trafficking. The literature review followed the core principles of a systematic literature review process. The review found that very little is known about the relationship between Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and HVT corridors, other major trade routes and border crossings along these routes. It also found that the role of transport sector operators within the human trafficking process is not well understood. This validates the choice of research topic and confirms the need to strengthen the evidence base on these issues.
Click below to download the report.
Professional Driver Training – Uganda project: Leveraging the private sector’s support in reducing road traffic fatalities and saving lives in Uganda
Based on data gathered in 2016, the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Road Safety (2018) reported an estimated 1.35 million deaths on our roads, with a significant number of people also suffering injury and/or disability. As we move into the UN’s second Decade of Action against Road Safety (2021-2030), these figures continue to present a significant burden for public health services in low income countries where the majority of fatalities and injuries occur.
In Uganda, the WHO (2018) estimated that over 12,000 lives are lost as a result of road traffic incidents annually and, taking into account the intra- and inter-regional carriage of goods and people (road transport accounts for over 95% of cargo freight and passenger movement in Uganda), the transport industry has a key role to play in reducing casualty rates in countries like Uganda.
The effective management of road safety offers efficiencies to the transport sector, which is already a key driver of economic growth through facilitating domestic and international trade as well as contributing to national integration and providing access to essential services such as education, employment and healthcare. Therefore there is every incentive for private and public sector transporters to invest in addressing this global health crisis.
Click below to read the full article.
The potential role of mobile phone technology in rural motorcycle and three-wheeler taxi services in Africa
Over the last two decades, motorcycle and motorised three-wheeler taxis have become important means of transport in many sub-Saharan African countries, including in rural areas. However, the emerging role of mobile phone technology in improving mobility in rural areas is currently under-explored in the literature.
This paper presents the findings of a small-scale research study that was undertaken into the use of mobile phone technology in the context of motorcycle and three-wheeler taxi use, and its potential to improve rural access. Informed by a literature review, the research focuses on four countries: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with riders of motorcycle and motorised three wheeler taxis and the developers of mobile phone-enabled transport technologies.
Mobile technology linked to the utilisation of motorcycle and three-wheeler taxis is increasing, but ‘ride hailing’ applications (apps) are likely to be limited to urban areas for the foreseeable future due to various disincentives to their use in rural areas. The study identifies several promising innovations that combine the use of motorcycles and three-wheelers with mobile technology to increase rural people’s access to essential services and opportunities. These have the potential to be scaled up or expanded to other countries.
To read the full the article, click below.
CASE STUDY: Emmanuel Zambo PDT-U COVID-19 Response Project – Uganda
In June 2020, Transaid launched a COVID-19 response programme to support heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers in Uganda, supported by the Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) Programme. Working with local partners, Transaid is helping to roll out driver-specific safety advice and provide handwashing facilities, cab sanitisation materials, and personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep drivers safe, reduce transmission rates and build community confidence in the safety of the logistics sector.
This case study tells the story of Emmanuel Zambo, a Congolese driver who has been driving long distance for over seven years. COVID-19 has brought many challenges to his job, as he explains.
Click below to read Emmanuel’s testimonial of how this project is positively impacting his ability to carry out his job.