2^nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety
April 25, 2007

      The 2^nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety convened just three years after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank released the landmark World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, and WHO devoted World Health Day to road safety. In April 2004 the United Nations took up the Global Road Safety Crisis at the first meeting of the General Assembly ever to address this issue. At the same time WHO, the World Bank and the public health community made the world aware that road traffic injuries are an epidemic taking a larger health toll than malaria or tuberculosis; an epidemic that is going to get much worse before it starts to get better, and an epidemic that takes the lives and cripples the most vulnerable road users. On April 14, 2004 WHO was designated as a coordinator for UN road safety activities and the regional economic commissions were asked to play a major role in addressing this crisis in their regions.

     Non-governmental organizations also played a critical role leading up to the first General Assembly meeting and they have continued to play an important role. The Global Road Safety Partnership has helped to develop new forms of public-private partnerships to advance road safety. NGOs have advanced progress in areas of victim advocacy, general advocacy, resource mobilization, and trauma care delivery around the world. Organizations like Safe Kids Worldwide have mobilized support for seat belt campaigns and child safety in a multitude of countries. They push governments and multi-lateral organizations to develop new and better policies and programs to address road safety. Foundations like the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society support critical efforts to test and rate our cars and roads; they support the development of road safety policy through the Commission for Global Road Safety. The Commission, under Lord Robertson’s leadership, issued the Make Roads Safe report. Lord Robertson, working closely with automobile clubs, heads of state and CEOs around the world, has done a superb job in spearheading the Make Roads Safe Campaign for global road safety.

     The private sector has helped to make progress in road design and construction, motor vehicle safety improvements, and educational campaigns targeted at policy makers as well as road users. The private sector is a huge beneficiary of safety and pays dearly when employees are killed and injured on the roads.

     The 2^nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety met to focus attention on the fact that despite this progress, there is a growing gap between the developed countries and the developing and transitional countries where the road traffic injury problem is getting worse. Participants from every region noted that if we cannot accelerate our response to the epidemic of road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries—by mobilizing more effective enforcement, building safer roadways, changing road user behaviors, and providing better care—we will lose tens of millions of lives before these problems turn the corner and start on a downward curve.

     The participants at the 2^nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety conveyed a sense of urgency and importance about the need to close the gap in road safety between developed and developing and transitional countries. Participants left the Forum committed to support four key global initiatives: the UN Road Safety Collaboration, the Robertson Commission Make Roads Safe Recommendations, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, and a UN Ministerial conference on road safety for 2009 or 2010. A majority of participants supported and endorsed each of the initiatives; many with ideas on further development of the goals.

     The UN Road Safety Collaboration and the guidelines it has produced were viewed as a significant contribution which could have even greater impact if the guidelines are made regionally specific, are locally endorsed, and have mechanisms developed to evaluate and modify them over time. Additional guidelines were recommended for specific issues, including alcohol use, pedestrian safety, and trauma care for road traffic injuries.

     The Make Roads Safe Recommendations were seen as a high priority by participants, and they wanted to see road safety mainstreamed as a development issue, more high-level political engagement, increased participation of private sector stakeholders, and a need for media awareness of critical road safety issues. Some participants requested further clarification and definition of the 10% rule.

      Participants also felt that the World Bank Global Road Safety facility should be a high priority for support by global stakeholders. They would like to see more communication specifically about the funding distribution mechanism and the relationship to other World Bank investments.

      Stakeholders expressed strong support for a UN Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and they would like to see careful preparation for the conference and inclusion of all relevant ministries, i.e. health, infrastructure, transport, education, and law enforcement. Strengthening political will was viewed as essential to the success of this conference, and it was suggested that an agreement modeled after the Kyoto Protocol for the environment might be a useful outcome.

      The Forum participants deeply appreciated the continuous efforts initiated by the Global Road Safety Stakeholders Forum in NYC in April 2004 to catalyze global road safety advocacy efforts, and by WHO for supporting these efforts under the banner of the UN Global Road Safety Collaboration.

      However, participants also felt that unfortunately the process of catalyzing road safety is not effectively filtering down to the stakeholders at local levels in the developing countries, and therefore much needs to be done to make road safety a reality. .Members felt and suggested that a two-pronged action plan would work ideally: 1) Continue current efforts being conducted by the WHO under the banner of the UN Global Road Safety Collaboration; 2) Initiate an ongoing road safety stakeholders forum to function under the banner of the Global Road Safety Forum. Both these efforts should simultaneously function under the United Nations to achieve desired results.

     Many participants stressed the need to widely disseminate information on all four initiatives. For additional information on the key initiatives, the Forum agenda, speakers and their presentations, please review the briefing book: Closing the Gap in Road Safety, 2^nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety.

     Participants believe that their continuing collaborative work to mobilize support for these initiatives will contribute significantly to closing this gap. The Forum also provided the opportunity for stakeholders from different sectors and regions to meet their counterparts from other places, sectors, and backgrounds. Coming away with a shared understanding of the potential for saving lives reinforced the importance of continuing to work together, perhaps as part of a campaign to save the 100 million lives at risk to being lost through road traffic injuries over the next 50 years. The meeting participants united with the World Youth Assembly to work to enlarge the community of global road safety stakeholders and leaders, and to increase political will in road safety around the world.