The Road Safety Manifesto, gives a priority list of road safety principles and polices. Stakeholders endorsed the manifesto at a Road Safety Discussion in this year World Economic Forum in Davos, where Manpreet Singh Badal, Minister of Finance and Planning of Punjab was a key note speaker representing the government perspective from India.
On the call of FIA and WEF, representatives of the business community, including Volvo Group, as well as the World Bank, the United Nations, International Road Federation, the International Federation of Red Cross, the Global Road Safety Partnership and local NGOs, such as the SaveLife Foundation started a dialogue to identify new ways of cooperation in support of government efforts to improve road safety in India.
This new public-private partnership is expected to set an example for accelerating results. Niklas Gustafsson, Chief Sustainability Officer, Volvo Group present at the event commented, “Safety is an integral part of sustainability and driving prosperity.
A region cannot have sustainable development and achieve social prosperity when crippled by the effects of road accidents and injuries: which is a social issue, a health issue, a transport issue as well as an issue of poverty & equality – as traffic safety often disproportionately affects the lower income people, especially women and the young.”
1.35 million People die and 50 million are seriously injured on the world’s roads every year. Despite the growing efforts to improve road safety, the results are disappointing and there is a need for an urgent change.
While building on the experience of the Decade of Action and on a growing number of best practices, new ways of cooperation among key stakeholders could help turn the tide and move out of the current deadlock.
Leap-frogging in road safety is more than ever feasible today as a result of technological innovations brought around by the 4th industrial revolution, provided there is effective collaboration between authorities, industries and the civil society.
The joint Global Road Safety Initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) seeks to address this global challenge, with particular emphasis on low- and middle-income countries.
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