Background In Nepal, road injuries are responsible for approximately 2800 deaths and 15000 injuries each year. Road safety policies play a significant role in reducing road injuries by setting standards and regulations for road safety measures. Policy reviews may generate knowledge to inform national policy makers to prioritize and invest in road safety initiatives, and support local level policymakers in developing evidence-based road safety policies.

Objective This policy review aims to understand the formulation of road safety policies and programs at the local, provincial, and national level governments of Nepal, to identify the barriers and facilitators in implementation of these policies, and to contribute to the reduction in road traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities in Nepal through evidence generation.

Policy Analysis Our policy analysis included a review of policy documents, key informant interviews and focus group discussions; our presentation will focus on the policy review. This review has applied the four categories of the Shiffman and Smith Policy Prioritization Framework which assesses actor power, ideas, policy contexts, and issue characteristics. The policies were compared against the ‘Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030’, which includes all the overarching pillars of the Safe Systems Approach, and to the legislative criteria on the five key behavioural risk factors used by the WHO including speed, drink-driving, failure to use helmets, seat-belts and child restraints, as well as on two emerging risk factors, drug-driving and the use of mobile phones while driving.

Policy Implications In countries like Nepal, the line ministries develop policies with good intention to improve road safety. However, policies are made in isolation and concerned ministries often do not work together with the ministry of finance to ensure resources to implement and enforce the policies.

Conclusions Critical reviews of road safety policies can help policy makers make informed decisions and allocate resources appropriately to improve road safety. Policy reviews can identify gaps and challenges in policy implementation, which may be relevant for other low- and middle-income countries, where there is a high burden of road traffic crashes and injuries.