Facility board members meet with Gareth Thomas MP
The UK Department for International Development (DfID) has taken over the chairmanship of the Global Road Safety Facility at a meeting in London.
UK Minister of State for International Development Gareth Thomas MP met with the Executive Board of the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) to discuss how the World Bank-hosted initiative can tackle road traffic injuries during the forthcoming UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
Dr Yusaf Samiullah, Deputy Director of the Infrastructure Policy and Research Division of DfID, was elected chairman of the GRSF at the meeting, hosted at the FIA Foundation’s headquarters. He takes over the chairmanship from David Ward, the FIA Foundation’s Director General, who steps down after two years at the helm. DfID announced it would be joining the Facility at the Moscow Conference in November 2009. The UK’s international aid agency joins the World Bank, the FIA Foundation and the governments of Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden in funding the Global Road Safety Facility.
Minister for International Development Gareth Thomas said that the UK will be at the forefront of efforts to improve road safety in developing countries over the next decade. In total, 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads each year, and nine out of ten fatalities are in low and middle income countries. Road traffic fatalities are the single biggest source of death among 15-19 year olds in developing countries and the second leading cause among 5-14 year olds.
Mr. Thomas said: “It is unacceptable that people in developing countries are more likely to die from simply crossing a road or driving a car than they are from malaria.
"Our support for the Global Road Safety Facility will enable us to work more effectively with other leaders on this issue and do more to prevent the 1.3 million deaths that are caused by road accidents each year.
"The Decade of Action for Road Safety, which will be launched next year, aims to reduce the amount of predicted road accident casualties by 50 percent by 2020. It is only by working together and taking strong action on this issue that we will reverse the appalling rate of accidents that currently take place."
David Ward, Director General of the FIA Foundation said: “The international community is beginning to respond to a growing epidemic of death and injury on the roads in developing countries. The UK government’s commitment to improving global road safety is to be welcomed as an important contribution. We must ensure that there is a sustained effort to save lives on the world’s roads over the forthcoming UN Decade of Action, so I am delighted that Yusaf Samiullah and DfID will be playing a leading role in taking the Global Road Safety Facility forward.”
Increased funding commitments for road safety from international donors, including DfID, was a key proposal of the Make Roads Safe campaign which ran a successful advocacy push for the UN Decade of Action. It is estimated that with an increase in funding, political attention and coordinated global action over the next 10 years, 5 million lives could be saved and avoid 50 million serious injuries prevented.
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