Angles morts institutionnels face aux accidents de la route en Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est : Une enquête qualitative auprès d’experts en sécurité routière.

Details

Supervisors

Masquelier, Bruno

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de la population et du développement, à finalité spécialisée: développement

Abstract

enEvery year, 1.19 million people die on the world's roads — the equivalent of the entire population of the Brussels-Capital Region wiped off the map. It is the leading cause of death among children and young adults aged 5 to 29. This death toll does not strike at random: 92 percent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries own only 60 percent of the world's registered vehicles. In a region where countries at comparable levels of development display road mortality rates ranging from one to twentyfold, classical explanatory frameworks (motorization, wealth, demographics) struggle to account for the scale of the disparities observed. This thesis examines this intra-regional heterogeneity through the case of fifteen South and Southeast Asian countries, drawing on data from the WHO's Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023 and on six semi-structured interviews conducted with international road safety experts. Thematic analysis of the corpus reveals that the predominance of powered two-wheelers, the heterogeneity of state capacities, and the invisibility of data are not independent causes, but facets of a single, self-reinforcing mechanism. This work calls for rethinking the way road safety policies designed elsewhere are transposed as-is onto South and Southeast Asia, without always being adapted to local usages, means, and priorities. Until this adaptation is taken seriously, international commitments to reducing road mortality will remain difficult to fulfil.