Preparing for the Global Ministerial Conference

Presentation by David Ward, Director General, FIA Foundation

Road Safety, Ibero-America and the CaribbeanMadrid 24th February 2009

World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention(WHO/World Bank 2004)

• Warns that 1.2 million deaths and 50 millioninjuries occur annually on the road, mainlyaffecting vulnerable road users, and will morethan double by 2020.

• Shows that low and middle income countries account for90% of global deaths from road traffic crashes.

• Identifies key injury risk factors (non use of seat belts, helmets,excessive speed, drink driving, and poor road infrastructure);

• Calls for greater international effort to reverse trend of rising RTIs;

• Recommends national prevention strategies based on a ‘lead agency’responsible for developing a multi-sectoral ‘safe systems’ approach.

The ‘Safety Systems’ Approach

Three components in a dynamicsystem:

• The road user

• The motor vehicle

• The road infrastructure

Rather than ‘blaming the victim’ for causing crashes, the risk of human erroris anticipated and ‘tolerated’ by a ‘forgiving’ system that has been designed toensure that the consequences of human error are non fatal as far as possible.

The design challenge is to manage loss of control of kinetic energy withintolerances survivable by the human body.

DALYS in Developing Countries (Children Age 5-14) (DALYS = Disability Adjusted Life Years)

Rank Deaths Cause Proportion of total (%)

1 Ischaemic heart disease 12.6

2 Cerebrovascular disease 9.7

3 Lower respiratory infections 6.9

4 HIV/AIDS 4.8

5 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 4.8

6 Perinatal conditions 4.3

7 Diarrhoeal diseases 3.3

8 Tuberculosis 2.7

9 Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers 2.2

10 Road traffic injuries 2.1

11 Diabetes mellitus 1.7

12 Malaria 1.6

Twelve Leading Causes of Mortality, 2002

International Action on Malaria

• Abuja Action Plan 2000 • UN Decade to Roll Back Malaria 2001-2010

• Global Fund launched by G8 and US $2.8 billion funding approved to date.

• UN Special Envoy for Malaria

About the Commission:

• An independent High Level Commission under the Chairmanship of the former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson with a member from each of the G8 countries and all major world regions;

• Supported by an expert advisory group including representatives from the WHO, World Bank, OECD, UNECE and NGOs;

• Funded by the FIA Foundation a UK registered charity established to promote road safety, the environment and sustainable mobility

Make Roads Safe Report

Key Recommendations:

• A $300 million, 10 year Action Plan to promote multi-sector national road safetycapacity building in low and middle incomecountries should be funded by donor governments and private sourcesand managed by the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility;

• At a minimum 10% of all road infrastructure projects should be committedto road safety design, rating and assessment and community wide

initiatives;

• A Ministerial Conference on Global Road Safety should be held in 2009 toreview implementation of the World Report recommendations;

Launch of Make Road Safe campaign

The Make Roads Safe campaign is launched to obtain

over 1 million signatures to be presented to the

UN Secretary General in 2008. The petition campaign is

launched by Michael Schumacher during the first UN

Global Road Safety Week in April 2007.

Campaign events are held in London, Geneva, Berlin, Cape

Town, Paris, St Petersburg, Kampala, and New York.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is joined by President Oscar Arias,

and former President Jimmy Carter as three Nobel prize

winners backing the campaign. Other supporters include the

former Irish President Mary Robinson, Tony Blair, musicians,

Sports stars and the film actress Michelle Yeoh.

Russian Federation Offers to Host UN

Ministerial in Moscow

Russia has the worst road safety performance of

the G8. Their fatality rate per 100,000 is 240 (UK’s

rate is 50). Road safety is now a major domestic

policy priority led by the Interior Ministry.

In 2006 Lord Robertson visited Moscow and meet

with Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov. After further

discussions with General Viktor Kiryanov (Head of

Road Safety Inspectorate) and Ambassador to UK

Yuri Fedotov in September 2007 the Russian Federation

offered to host the proposed UN Ministerial in Moscow

in November 2009.

UN General Assembly Approves

First Ever Ministerial Conference

on Road Safety

In March 2008 the UN General Assembly debates road safety and Resolution

62/244 drafted by the Sultanate of Oman is unanimously approved which

welcomes the offer by the Russian Federation to host the “first high level

(ministerial) conference on road safety”. The Russian Federation confirms

Moscow will be the venue and 19-20 November 2009 as the provisional date.

The Make Roads Safe petition target is reached and presented to UN Secretary

General Ban Ki-moon by Lord Robertson, Michelle Yeoh, Karla Gonzalez.

First Global Ministerial Conference onRoad Safety – Time for Action

Agenda and Opportunities

Review the implementation of the World Report and the road safety activities of the UN Regional Commission’s, WHO, World Bank etc.

Agree on common definitions for key road safety related data, identify best practice on key risk factors, and support the concept of ‘forgiving roads’ etc.

Review the work of the UN World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations and the role of the 1949/1968 UN Road Traffic Conventions.

Agree to a Decade of Action for Road Safety 2010-2020 with the goal of reducing the forecast level of fatalities by 50% by 2020.

OECD – International Transport Forum

‘Towards Zero – Ambitious Road Safety Targets & the Safe System Approach

Key Recommendations:

• Adopt a highly ambitious vision for road safety• Set interim targets to move systematically towards the vision• Develop a safe system approach• Exploit proven interventions for early gains• Conduct data collection and analysis• Strengthen the road safety management system• Accelerate knowledge transfer• Invest in road safety• Foster commitment at highest levels of government

Road Safety Targets

Regional casualty reduction targets include:

• European Union and European Conference of Ministers of Transport to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2010 and 2012 respectively

• UNESCAP (Asia Pacific) Ministers agreed to cut deaths by 600,000 by 2015

• UNECA (Africa) Ministers of Health & Transport agreed to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2015

Global Road Safety Action Plan:

Global/Regional Activity

$30 million

Assessment & Research

$30 million

Institutional Capacity

$105 million

Demonstration Projects

$90 million

Post Crash $45 million

Total $300 million

The Action Plan to be implemented on two levels:

Global and regional: supporting UNcoordination, professional capacity ofregional organisations, exchange ofgood practice, and adoption of regionalinjury prevention targets

Country level: supporting assessmentand research, institutional capacitybuilding, demonstration projects, andpost crash interventions.

Road to Moscow: Next Steps

Rome Conference 5th May

• Launch of the second Make Roads Safe report at a major conference in Rome on 5th May 2009 linked to the Italian Presidency of the G8

• Launch of the Make Roads Safe documentary film with Michelle Yeoh which features visits to Asia, Africa and Latin America and will highlight the key messages of the Commission’s reports.

• Focus the Make Roads Safe campaign on the theme of a decade of

action to achieve a 50% reduction in forecast fatalities by 2020.

Agenda for Moscow

Make 2010-2020 A Decade of Action for Road Safety

• Support an action plan of $300 million to invest in capacity building in road injury prevention...

• Invest in safer roads by committing at least 10% of project finance to safe road assessment and design.

• Agree a global target to reduce road fatalities by 50% from their

forecast level for 2020.

Thank You !