Lord Robertson and Hilary Benn discuss Make Roads Safe

The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn MP, has met with Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety to discuss the Make Roads Safe Report.

At the meeting Lord Robertson explained that road safety should be regarded as an issue of sustainable development and highlighted the impact on health services, with road traffic injuries accounting for almost half the hospital bed occupancy in surgical wards in some low and middle income countries.

The Secretary of State has previously congratulated Lord Robertson’s Commission for preparing “a practical action plan for the international community” and already welcomed its recommendation that all road project investments should include a provision for road safety. “Not only will this principle become best practice for DFID projects but we will endorse the principle for others to follow” Mr Benn confirmed.

A key topic for discussion at the London meeting was the role of the recently established World Bank Global Road Safety Facility. Currently supported by the FIA Foundation, the Dutch Ministry of Transport and the Swedish Development Agency, the Facility is unique as the first ever multilateral funding initiative for road traffic injury prevention in low and middle income countries. Lord Robertson asked if the Department for International Development (DFID) could become a contributor to the Facility thereby joining Sweden and the Netherlands, countries which together with the UK have world’s best experience in reducing death and injury on the road. The Secretary of State confirmed that this subject was under active review at the moment. Securing funding for the Facility is a key objective of the Make Roads Safe campaign.

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