Make Roads Safe

The Make Roads Safe report from the Commission for Global Road Safety seeks to include road safety in the mainstream development agenda outlined in the Millennium Development Goals.  By 2015, road crashes will be the leading cause of death for children aged 5-14 in the developing world. It is clear that road injury prevention must be recognized as a key development issue.  The objective of the Commission and the Make Roads Safe campaign is to secure high-level political engagement with and serious financial commitment for, road injury prevention in low and middle income countries, to ensure the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention are implemented. 

The Make Roads Safe Report links the importance of safe roads to effective delivery of many of the MDGs.

The report highlights the need for road infrastructure development projects backed by the G8, through the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa, and the World Bank to include a viable road safety component, implementing the World Bank’s own guideline of 10% of project budget dedicated to road safety.

The report proposes donors fund a Global Road Safety Action Plan with $300 million, 2007 to 2015, to develop road safety institutional capacity in developing countries and to scale up road safety activity within the aid community.  The Action Plan would be led by the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility.

The report calls for a UN sponsored global ministerial conference, gathering Transport, Health and other relevant Ministers, to provide a platform for an international strategic direction and appropriate profile for road safety.

To learn more about the Campaign and read the full report, visit the Make Roads Safe website www.makeroadssafe.org.