4th July 2008, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development
Safer road infrastructure is a key element of effective strategies to reduce the rising trend of road fatalities in developing countries. Identifying road design flaws through systematic assessment and then improving safety features through mass action programmes can be one of the most rapid and cost effective ways to reduce road casualties.
On July 4th 2008 the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, the Commission for Global Road Safety and the FIA Foundation together organised the ‘Making Roads Safe’ conference to develop a consensus around common systems of road infrastructure safety design, rating and assessment. Participants to the conference included leading officials of regional development banks; donor governments; ministers, officials and road directors from developing country governments; UN agencies; NGOs, road engineers; development and road safety experts.
The meeting heard from a high level panel chaired by the President of PIARC, Colin Jordan, and including the new President of the EBRD, Thomas Mirow, and the Vice President, Brigita Schmögnerová; Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety; Costa Rica’s Minister of Transport, Karla Gonzalez; the head of Nigeria’s road safety commission, Osita Chidoka; and the head of Russia’s road safety department, Victor Kiryanov. Russia will host the first UN Ministerial Conference on global road safety in November 2009.
Development campaigner and academic Kevin Watkins chaired a session examining the global impact of road traffic injuries. Session speakers persuasively connected road safety with the international development and poverty agendas, and the World Bank’s lead road safety specialist, Tony Bliss, pointed out that by 2015, target year of the Millennium Development Goals, road crashes will be the leading health impact for children aged 5 and above in developing countries. Kevin Watkins warned that development NGOs and UN agencies urgently needed to recognise the scale of the road injury epidemic.
Swedish road safety director Professor Claes Tingvall presented the case for investing in safe road infrastructure, drawing on his experience as the architect of Sweden’s ‘vision zero’ policy, in a session chaired by DFID’s Alistair Wray, and the results of the first pilot projects by the International Road Assessment Programme were launched, revealing that large reductions in death and injury, and very strong economic benefits, can potentially be achieved through network wide infrastructure safety uprating.
In the final session of the conference the FIA Foundation’s David Ward brought together senior officials from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Inter American Development Bank, the EBRD and the International Road Federation to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by introducing a systematic and coordinated approach to infrastructure safety across the international financial institutions. All the participants agreed that it should be possible to develop a common statement of principles on road infrastructure safety, endorsed by all the development banks, by the time of the UN Ministerial Conference in 2009. The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility has established a Working Group to take this initiative forward.
Presentations and speeches from the conference can be downloaded below. A full report will be available later in the year.
Click here to download conference programme >
‘Making Roads Safe’ examines the human and economic case for investing in safe road infrastructure and ending the tragic and unnecessary funding of killer roads by the international community.
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View film: Low | Med | High (QuickTime)
Click here to listen to BBC World Service report >
Presentations
Colin Jordan >
Victor Kiryanov >
Anthony Bliss >
Margie Peden >
Eva Molnar >
Claes Tingvall >
Alex Roerhl >
Isabelle Kardacz >
Hans Joachim Vollpracht >
Elisa Dumitrescu >
John Dawson and Rob McInerney >
Speeches
HRH Prince Michael of Kent Speech 03 July 2008 >
Thomas Mirow 04 July 2008 >
Brigita Schmögnerová 04 July 2008 >
Lord Robertson Speech 04 July 2008 >
Osita Chidoka Speech 04 July 2008 >
Karla Gonzalez Speech 04 July 2008 >