Skip to main content

Third African safety conference – held in Addis Ababa

IRF providing input for the revision of the African Decade of Action Plan As part of the preparations for the second Global High Level Conference on Road Safety to be held in Brasilia later this year, UNECA, in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), African Transport Policy Programme (SSATP), the Global Road Safety Facility of the World Bank, the International Road Federation (IRF-Geneva) and other partners, organised the Third African Road Safety Conference on 9 and 10 July 2015 at the U
August 18, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A key conference conclusion was that better data would help deliver improved road safety
IRF providing input for the revision of the African Decade of Action Plan

As part of the preparations for the second Global High Level Conference on Road Safety to be held in Brasilia later this year, UNECA, in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), African Transport Policy Programme (SSATP), the Global Road Safety Facility of the World Bank, the International Road Federation (1201 IRF Geneva) and other partners, organised the Third African Road Safety Conference on 9 and 10 July 2015 at the United Nation Conference Centre in Addis Ababa.

The objective of this conference was to review the progress made towards the objectives of the African Road Safety Action Plan (2011-2020). As part of this review, the conference covered the progress made by member states have in implementing the African Road Safety Action Plan; and identifying the challenges to the implementation of the Action Plan.

The conference was kicked off with address by Tekletsadik Reba, State Minister of Transport for Ethiopia, Jean Todt, and the UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, and Kiran Kapila, IRF Geneva chairman. Todt highlighted the need to collect more and better data in his address. Kapila, IRF Geneva chairman, gave a keynote address in which he emphasised the need to improve road safety not just on new roads, but also on existing roads. According to UNECA, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa are the “top three performers among 23 countries” in terms of carrying out the activities of the African Road Safety Action Plan. While progress has and is being made, the performance of countries in implementing the Plan and improving road safety has been mixed. Meanwhile, around 40% of the countries are implementing road safety management activities. But more than 30% of the countries have not even take steps to harmonise data formats and use international standards for reporting road safety data.

One of the key conclusions of the conference was that the availability and quality of data needed to be improved. Better, and more data, the conference concluded would greatly help in designing evidence based interventions and improving road safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IRF strives for improved road safety
    November 1, 2012
    The latest in the series of major road safety conferences hosted by IRF’s India Chapter will take place in New Delhi from 1-2 November 2012, with the focus on Urban and Rural Roads Each day, thousands of people are injured or killed on roads around the world. According to the World Bank, “the social and economic losses from road deaths and injuries in low and middle-income countries are projected to be on a catastrophic scale. . .” Globally, road injuries and deaths are due to a number of factors. This unde
  • Preserving transport Infrastructure, while adapting to climate change
    June 14, 2019
    Hundreds of lives lost. More than 8,000 people stuck overnight in a flooded airport in Japan in the wake of a typhoon in 2018. Nearly 800% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Dutch island of St. Maarten (and 600% of the GDP of the French half, St. Martin) wiped out during the 2017 hurricane season, which devastated many Caribbean island economies, with over $5.4 billion in losses reported in Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, and Turks and Caicos Islands alone. Transportation in
  • Promoting the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety
    February 27, 2012
    As part of its strong commitment to promoting the objectives of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020), IRF will be convening a major international symposium in Bucharest, Romania from 10-11 May, 2011. The symposium, based around the theme Providing Infrastructure that improves Road Safety, will take the form of a high-level, two-day interactive gathering, built around six sessions addressing key themes.
  • The IRF India Regional Conference is seeing its 9th edition this year
    July 7, 2015
    The IRF Geneva said that India has the dubious distinction of claiming the highest number of fatalities by road crashes. More than 10% of road-related deaths occur in India alone, and this poses a serious challenge, being the major killer of young and productive lives. While India’s infrastructure programme is being lauded all over the world and high rate of growth has been achieved for the 1.25 billion strong democracy, a significant 3% of the GDP is lost every year due to the uncontrolled and unmanaged