Quarterly Progress Report: Head Safe. Helmet On.

Helmet On. project in Cambodia, supported by the United States Agency for International Development's Development Innovation Ventures, aims to prevent thousands of unnecessary road crash injuries and fatalities and save Cambodia millions of dollars otherwise lost. The project's overall objective is to increase helmet use and road safety skills among primary school students and motorcycle passengers aged 15-44 years in three Cambodian provinces: Phnom Penh, Kampong Speu, and Kandal. During the reporting period from December 1st, 2015 to February 29th, 2016, the project made significant progress towards its objectives. Notably, January saw a significant rise in helmet wearing rates, nearly tripling since the project's start, following the enforcement of the new Road Traffic Law by the Government of Cambodia. The law requires motorcycle passengers, in addition to drivers, to wear helmets. The project's three programmatic components, School-Based Program (SBP), Behavior Change Communications (BCC), and Enabling Environment Campaign (EEC), continued to implement their activities. The SBP distributed HSHO helmets to all new-entry students for the school year and conducted crash monitoring at each school. The BCC launched the second phase of its mass media campaign, calling public attention to the January start of enforcement of the new passenger helmet law. The EEC continued to work closely with sub-national levels in finalizing district-level enforcement action plans. The HSHO team also made progress in recruiting new staff, with interviews and written examinations held for top candidates for the Finance Assistant and SBP Assistant positions. However, AIP Foundation struggled to find a qualified candidate willing to accept the short-term placements, and is now seeking a Junior Finance Assistant and Junior SBP Assistant. The project's Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities continued, with SBP M&E, BCC M&E, and Project-Wide M&E activities conducted. The project also developed materials, including IEC materials, and procured necessary equipment and supplies. The project's activities are outlined in the following sections: Initial Project Activities, Program Components, and Cross-Cutting Activities. The Initial Project Activities section describes the preparation and project launch, including new staff recruitment and project launch ceremonies. The Program Components section outlines the activities of the SBP, BCC, and EEC, including teacher activities, parent activities, student activities, public awareness activities, and district-wide and commune-wide activities. The Cross-Cutting Activities section describes the project's M&E activities, materials development, and procurement. The project's progress is summarized in the following tables: Table 1 Refresher Workshops for Teachers, Table 2 Helmet handovers for New-entry Students, Table 3 Non-class Activities, Table 4 Participants of Commune-wide Activities, Table 5 Third Round of Commune Wide Meetings, Table 6 Crash Monitoring at Schools, Table 7 IEC Materials Summary, Table 8 Completed Procurements, and Table 9 Next Quarter Activities. Overall, the Head Safe. Helmet On. project continues to make progress towards its objectives, with significant increases in helmet wearing rates and continued implementation of its programmatic components.