Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Post-crash response deficiencies have become a public health problem, inexplicably affecting all types of road users, from pedestrians to drivers and cyclists (Cameron, 2004). According to WHO (2016), post-crash response attempts to build capacity for immediate care and stabilization at crash spots, suitable transfers of victims to medical facilities, provision of medical trauma care, as well as necessary rehabilitation services to enable a restoration into active life. Often, the most affected population who lose their lives in road traffic accidents are youths; productive people in society, in the range of 15 to 44 years of age (Cameron, 2004). It is generally accepted that previous injunctions to disaggregate and devolve governments under the influence of New Public Management (NPM) maxims fuelled movements towards Distributed Governance Organisations (DGO) of which the MVA fund is an example in Namibia. This scenario resulted in decentring and the proliferation of specialised central government agencies characterised by fragmentation, lack of coherence, attenuated central government controls and ineffective service delivery. In the post-NPM era, there has been counter movements towards reintegrating the erstwhile fragmented state by focusing on the government as a whole by joining up the parts through horizontal (and vertical) coordination (Halligan, 2010).
In this environment, Klijn and Koppenjan (2012) argue that Collaborative governance has emerged as a new paradigm and tool in public governance dealing with inherent organisational complexities, interdependencies and dynamics involving complex public problem solving. In Namibia, the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund was established in 1991 as statutory organisation in terms of Act 30 of 1990. The Fund is mandated to design systems, promote road safety and implement crash and injury prevention measures. Besides this, it provides assistance and benefits to all people injured in road accidents as well as dependents of people killed in road crashes in accordance with the MVA Fund Act No.10 of 2007 (Government of Namibia, 2007). However, reportedly in Namibia, road accident deaths increased from 300 per annum in 2008 to an average of 647 deaths annually during 2016 fiscal year (MVA Fund, 2016). “Globally, the number of fatalities due to road traffic crashes each year is estimated at almost 1.2 million, while the number injured could be as high as 50 million“ mainly due to post-crash response deficiencies (Grassi, 2018). According to the transport and trade in Latin America and the Caribbean Bulletin of 2017, it is reported that between 2010 and 2013, the percentage of deaths due to motorcycle accidents rose by 5% in the region. This is consistent with the rapidly growing number of such vehicles in many of the Latin American cities (Gabriel, Pérez; Cristina, 2017). This has further given impetus to the globally shared objective of preventing 5 million deaths, avoiding 50 million serious injuries, and saving US$ 5 billion in resources during the Decade of Action for Road Safety (Gabriel, Pérez; Cristina, 2017).