Road Safety after the Stockholm Conference – with enhanced ambitions into a new decade of action

The Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) aimed to reduce the number of road traffic fatalities by offering a framework for policy, practice and advocacy to help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  SDG 3.6, aiming to halve the number of deaths and injuries caused by road crashes, is coming to an end in 2020. However, the total number of deaths in road traffic has not decreased globally in spite of the policies in place, as EU Ambassador Stevens stressed that "road safety needs to be mainstreamed in all relevant policies, in order to build adequate, safe transport systems."

Today 380,000 people still die every day on the road, "a situation that would be called an emergency in any other sector" according to Jean Todds, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety. "We need to transform our thinking and evolve into an approach where safety is the core value".  Jean Todds also reminded that "we have to continue our efforts and extend it into the next decade" as the extended target by 2030 is to divide by two the number of death on the road.

https://twitter.com/EU_UNGeneva/status/1232341935613976581?s=20

The preceding 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Stockholm earlier this February, reviewed the lessons learnt from the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020). The discussions among ministerial representatives confirmed that road safety is not just a transport issue but is a question of health, of development and is also a part of many sustainability challenges.

"In order to engrave safety into the DNA of our mobility systems, we should indeed be emphasizing the value of safety, together with equity, gender equality and environmental protection, while relying on the existing policies and best practices, or technologies," EU Ambassador Walter Stevens underlined.

https://twitter.com/EU_UNGeneva/status/1232343060790599681  

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) highlighted the implication of the youth and the civil society in Stockholm and stressed the need to involve all stakeholders on the matter. In this context, Swedish Ambassador Veronica Bark in Geneva, added that a strong political commitment was needed in order to include road safety at the heart of a cross sector approach on security.

https://twitter.com/EU_UNGeneva/status/1232342772499320832?s=20

The first panel on "Member States’ needs and initiatives" showcased the experiences of Brazil, Russia and Zimbabwe on their initiatives on road safety. Brazil shared that since 2009, the level of casualties due to road accidents has been reduced by 20% in the country due, in part, to the implementation of policies based on scientific evidence. Both countries underlined the need to modify risk behaviour, an approach that requires time and involvement of the local community.

The Organisation International des Constructeurs d’Automobiles (OICA), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the UN Road Safety Fund on the second panel "Supporting road safety in the next decade" underlined the responsibility of manufacturers . The UN Road Safety Fund announced that they were aiming for 320 million dollars of funding by 2025 as they have raised 20 million in pledge so far.

In conclusion, all the discussants agreed that the new global world safety targets should take into account social and economic aspect to face the multiplicity of mobility challenges, in particular in developing countries, who still account for 90% of the world causalities due to road accident.