Action and accountability for safer roads
With six months to go until the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety (Ministerial Conference) in Morocco, NGOs are gearing up to leverage this opportunity for advocacy and accountability.
The Alliance’s Call to Action sets
out three key demands to achieve the 2030 road safety targets:
implement interventions that have been proven to reduce road deaths and
injuries, transparent and accountable funding to make mobility safe, and
involvement of NGOs—who are the eyes, ears, and voices of
communities—in decision making.
The Ministerial Conference is a milestone to galvanize governments
into evidence-based action and investment. NGOs are already pushing for
SMART commitments through their day-to-day advocacy, many of them using
the #CommitToAct Mobility Snapshots. The Ministerial Conference can spur
on stronger, further reaching ones. Crucially, when the conference
finishes and Ministers return to their countries, NGOs are there,
equipped with the Accountability Toolkit, to remind them of the commitments they have made and to keep them accountable for resourcing and implementing them.
These next months in the run up to the Ministerial Conference are
important. Find out below how you can play your part. What happens
during and afterwards is life-or-death for 1.19 million people a year. |
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Alliance members at the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm
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Mobilizing for the Ministerial Conference
In the coming weeks, invitations will be sent to Ministers to attend the
Ministerial Conference in February 2025. The theme for the conference
is “One world, one road: commit to life” and underscores the urgent
need for meaningful commitment toward halving global road deaths by
2030.
NGOs can start by ensuring that the right decision makers attend the
Ministerial Conference and encouraging them to bring concrete
commitments. Tools like the Mobility Snapshots and Accountability Toolkit can
support advocacy to show the realities of people’s
dangerous journeys and how to make them safer. At the conference, NGOs
can help keep those realities visible, especially if they can attend as
part of their government's official delegation. After the conference,
NGOs role continues, they must ensure accountability by tracking that
commitments are implemented.
The Alliance will work alongside NGOs to ensure a strong civil society
voice before, during, and after the Ministerial Conference. Join our
first information session on Tuesday 17 September at 14:00 CET to
brainstorm how to engage national and local authorities for the
conference and to find out about the Alliance’s plans in Morocco,
including a civil society symposium, the Commit to Life zone and call to
action event. Register for the information session HERE, find more our preparations for the Ministerial Conference HERE and access the conference website HERE.
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Blanco Encalada St and Sucre Av, San Isidro, Buenos Aires
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Featured Mobility Snapshot: Buenos Aires
320 pedestrians and 60 cyclists use the intersection of Blanco Encalada
Street and Sucre Avenue in San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is
near a school, fast food restaurant, and leisure facilities.
A Mobility Snapshot by Asociación Madres del Dolor found that footpaths
and crossings at the intersection were not well maintained, there was no
traffic calming, and that the speed limit was 50 km/h. IRAP analysis
of the Mobility Snapshot recommended footpath improvements, signalized
pedestrian crossings, speed limit reduction, and traffic calming
measures. Implementing these would raise the intersection from a
one-star to a four-star safety rating for pedestrians.
Asociación Madres del Dolor is using its Mobility Snapshot to advocate
for upgrades to the intersection. It has obtained commitment
for construction of a new pedestrian crossing, which replaces an old and
faded crossing and moves it to a better location, and a ramp to improve
accessibility. Implementation is underway.
“Prior to our Mobility Snapshot and advocacy, no one had requested these
changes. People were just used to walking between cars and bikes. It’s a
simple change that can make crossing that street much safer for so
many,” says Viviam Perrone of Asociación Madres del Dolor.
Read more HERE. |
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NGO advocacy contributes to 30 km/h school zones in Malaysia
Speed
limits in school zones across Malaysia are to be lowered from 40 km/h
to 30 km/h, announced the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last month.
Among the contributors to this achievement was Safe Kids Malaysia, whose
advocacy efforts played a role in the government’s decision. By
leveraging the Accountability Toolkit—a
set of practical tools that empowers NGOs to hold their governments
accountable for the safety of all road users—they documented their
advocacy, and developed talking points and a checklist of interventions
which they used while meeting with government officials and other
stakeholders. Their advocacy was also informed by research evidence that
highlighted the risks associated with unsafe school zones.
According to Kulanthayan KC Mani, Safe Kids Malaysia, “the toolkit not
only provided organized talking points and a step-by-step guide but also
served as a checklist to ensure no critical elements were
overlooked. It was instrumental in documenting and storing key
information, which was essential for continuity as the advocacy journey
progressed.”
The proactive role of the Malaysian government in aligning with global
road safety policies was also crucial. “The Malaysian government’s
adoption of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety
2021-2030, evident in the National Road Safety Action Plan 2022-2030,
was also crucial and prioritized speed reduction, including the push for
30 km/h zones,” says Kulanthayan KC Mani. Read more HERE.
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