07/04/2017

Fifth Global Meeting - NGOs for Road Safety

In this bi-annual meeting, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez together with more than 200 road safety NGOs and stakeholders from 70-plus countries renewed their commitment to enabling governments and communities to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.

During these four-day Global Meeting, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez, through its research coordinator, Florencia Lambrosquini, participated in capacity strengthening sessions, network and exchange activities and planning of promotion events.

On April 3, Lambrosquini moderated the panel “Child Restraint Systems and Seat Belts”, where Lorrie Walker from Safe Kids Worldwide, Lika Merabishvili from Parnership Foundation for Road Safety, and Yahaya Ahmad from the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (MIROS) made their presentations.

The research coordinator also attended workshops on “Safety System Approach”, “Safe School Surroundings”, “Highway Classification” and "Helmet Standards”. She also took part in promotion activities of "Slow Down” carried out with school children and the Selangor community. “Slow Down” will be the main theme for the upcoming Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week in May .

Prominent leaders presented at the Global Meeting focusing on the importance of coordination and associations to promote specific results: The Ministry of Transport Malaysia, Liow Tang; Shaw Voon Wong, Director General, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS); Dr. Etienne Krug, Director, Department for Management of Non-communicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO; Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety; Mr. Marc Shotten, Program Manager, Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), and Mr. Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation, Executive Director.

The Declaration of Malaysia was signed on the final day of the Global Meeting by all participants. The Declaration of Malaysia states the commitment of the road safety community to implementing practical, evidence-based measures to improve road safety and post-crash response and calls upon all other stakeholders to partner meaningfully in these efforts.

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety was established in 2012 by NGO members of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) and currently represents more than 180 member NGOs working in road safety from 90-plus countries around the world.