New York, USA - On the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, UNITAR hosted its Partnership for Action on Road Safety meeting with the objective of reviewing progress, sharing new initiatives, highlighting successes and priorities, and foster connections among road safety leaders to enhance collaboration and multiply effective interventions.
The Partnership for Action on Road Safety is a collaboration between UNITAR and AB InBev to build capacity of government authorities to implement holistic and evidence-based approaches that improve road safety, increase public awareness of risk factors causing traffic crashes, promote partnerships to accelerate progress, and facilitate practical tools, learning resources, methodologies, and practical solutions.
Since its inception in 2018, this collaborative effort has brought together 115 partners from the public and private sectors, academia, and not-for-profit organizations to support the implementation of road safety initiatives in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. 108 road safety interventions in areas related to public awareness, education and training, engineering and infrastructure, technology, data management and law enforcement across 31 countries have been implemented. 31,994 beneficiaries have been reached through learning, training, and knowledge-sharing services.
A dedicated Road Safety Community of Practice established within AB InBev with over 100 members around the world has been instrumental in designing and executing targeted interventions that have significantly improved road safety outcomes in numerous countries.
The Partnership has placed special emphasis on promoting data-driven decision-making. The development and deployment of tools for data collection and analysis have empowered stakeholders to make informed decisions and implement effective road safety measures. Virtual dashboards to monitor data related to road traffic incidents, empowering government officials to implement informed road safety actions have been designed and donated: the first, a Road Safety Dashboard for Gurugram, India, and the second one, a Road Safety Regional Dashboard for the Andean Community Member Countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The Partnership for Action on Road Safety aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Health and Wellbeing), 11 (Sustainable Cities) and 17 (Partnerships). By uniting diverse stakeholders and implementing data-driven, localized interventions, this initiative demonstrates that public-private partnerships are effective and that this model can be replicated to address different global challenges.
During the partners' meeting, the 5-year results report "Road Safety-Delivering Transformative Solutions" was presented to encapsulate the collective achievements accomplished and, most importantly, to serve as a compilation of good practices and examples of actions that could be replicated in support of road safety in different countries across the globe.
On this special occasion, impact stories and their remarkable results were highlighted:
- Ms. Ana Beatriz Vasconcelos from the Ministry of Transport of Brazil presented Project RENAEST - a data management intervention aimed at generating road safety-related information for better decision-making based on real-time data.
- Ms. Maria Jose Orantes, Communications Manager at Teletón El Salvador presented the educational campaign "You are not a Superhero", dedicated to increasing public awareness about the risks causing road traffic crashes amongst motorcycle drivers.
- "Vive la Via" - a comprehensive intervention implemented in the Municipality of Mixco in Guatemala was highlighted by Mr. Henry Castañeda, Head of Urban Mobility and Transportation of the Municipality of Mixco.
- Mr. Haengjiae Lee, Senior Researcher at the Korea Road Traffic Authority (KoROAD) presented the project implemented in South Korea involving the installation of an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) in trucks accompanied by educational campaigns with the objective of reducing drunk driving amongst truck drivers.
Looking towards the future, the role of partnerships will continue to be critical in developing and delivering solutions that support sustainable and inclusive development. In this framework, UNITAR and AB InBev renewed their commitment to continue working together and collaboratively with all stakeholders to build human and institutional capacities to have safer communities and a more sustainable global future.
