Past Events
United Nations
First UN Stakeholders Forum
United Nations Headquarters, New York
April 14, 2004
For information on the 2004 UN General Assembly meeting, the First UN Stakeholders Forum and the historic events leading up to these meetings, read the full meeting report The Global Road Safety Crisis: We Should Do Much More. This report documents critical events in identifying and mobilizing action on the global road safety epidemic: the April 14, 2004 United Nations General Assembly Meeting and the April 15th Stakeholders’ Forum, 2004 World Health Day, and publication of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention by the World Health Organization and the World Bank.
The full report is available in pdf format
Second UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety
Palais des Nations, Geneva Switzerland
25 April 2007
The 2nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety convened just three years after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank released the landmark World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, and WHO devoted World Health Day to road safety. The 2nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety met to focus attention on the fact that despite this progress, there is a growing gap between the developed countries and the developing and transitional countries where the road traffic injury problem is getting worse. Participants from every region noted that if we cannot accelerate our response to the epidemic of road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries—by mobilizing more effective enforcement, building safer roadways, changing road user behaviors, and providing better care—we will lose tens of millions of lives before these problems turn the corner and start on a downward curve.
The participants at the 2nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety conveyed a sense of urgency and importance about the need to close the gap in road safety between developed and developing and transitional countries. Participants left the Forum committed to support four key global initiatives: the UN Road Safety Collaboration, the Robertson Commission Make Roads Safe Recommendations, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, and a UN Ministerial conference on road safety for 2009 or 2010. A majority of participants supported and endorsed each of the initiatives; many with ideas on further development of the goals.
The UN Road Safety Collaboration and the guidelines it has produced were viewed as a significant contribution which could have even greater impact if the guidelines are made regionally specific, are locally endorsed, and have mechanisms developed to evaluate and modify them over time. Additional guidelines were recommended for specific issues, including alcohol use, pedestrian safety, and trauma care for road traffic injuries.
The Make Roads Safe Recommendations were seen as a high priority by participants, particularly the recommendation to mainstream road safety as a development issue. Stakeholders overwhelmingly endorsed efforts to engage high-level political representation, to increase private sector participation, and to raise media awareness of critical road safety issues.
The World Bank Global Road Safety Facility was ranked as a high- priority for support by global stakeholders. They would like to see more communication specifically about the funding distribution mechanism and the relationship to other World Bank investments.
Stakeholders expressed strong support for a UN Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and they would like to see careful preparation for the conference and inclusion of all relevant ministries, i.e. health, infrastructure, transport, education, and law enforcement. Strengthening political will was viewed as essential to the success of this conference, and it was suggested that an agreement modeled after the Kyoto Protocol for the environment might be a useful outcome.
The Forum participants deeply appreciated the continuous efforts initiated by the Global Road Safety Stakeholders Forum in NYC in April 2004 to catalyze global road safety advocacy efforts, and by WHO for supporting these efforts under the banner of the UN Global Road Safety Collaboration. However, participants also felt that unfortunately the process of catalyzing road safety is not effectively filtering down to the stakeholders at local levels in the developing countries, and therefore much needs to be done to make road safety a reality. Members felt and suggested that a two-pronged action plan would work ideally: 1) Continue current efforts being conducted by the WHO under the banner of the UN Global Road Safety Collaboration; 2) Initiate an ongoing Road Safety Stakeholders Forum to function under the banner of the Global Road Safety Forum. Both these efforts should simultaneously function under the United Nations to achieve desired results.
Many participants stressed the need to widely disseminate information on all four initiatives. Participants believe that their continuing collaborative work to mobilize support for these initiatives will contribute significantly to closing this gap.
For additional information on the key initiatives, the Forum agenda, speakers and their presentations, please review the briefing book:
Closing the Gap in Road Safety, 2nd UN Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety.
Read the Executive Summary of the April 25th meeting
Latin America
First Latin American and Caribbean Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety
San José, Costa Rica
September 14-16, 2006
- Organize a regional, multi-sectoral approach to road safety in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Build political will within national governments and other policy-making organizations throughout the region to reduce deaths and disability from road traffic injuries.
- Promote integration of the relevant areas of government, civil society, and the private sector in order to accelerate national road safety plans and programs throughout the region.
- Ensure that this regional road safety effort is both collaborative and sustainable.
Forum participants overwhelmingly approved the Declaration of San José and its call for a regional committee. President Óscar Arias Sánchez, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, officially agreed to serve as Honorary Chairman of the Transitional Commission for Road Safety in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Commission has proposed to work together during 2007, with advocacy and capacity-building support from the Global Road Safety Forum, to develop a regional coordinating mechanism that will draw upon all relevant sectors of government, civil society, and the private sector to promote a region-wide approach to road safety. The Global Road Safety Forum provides the Commission with advocacy and capacity-building support focused on developing a regional multi-sector coordinating mechanism with governmental, civil society and private sector constituents.
More information on the San José Road Safety Stakeholder’s Forum including the Declaration of San José, is available in both Spanish and English:
Making Roads Safe in Latin America and the Caribbean ENGLISH
Construyendo Carreteras Seguras en America Latina y el Caribe ESPANOL
Making Roads Safe in Latin America and the Caribbean, a documentary by Richard Stanley