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

  • Road safety gains were not as marked in 2011 as in 2010 according to the new IRTAD report
    May 2, 2012
    The International Transport Forum has released its IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report 2011, which reveals road safety improvements were not as marked in 2011 as 2010.
  • TISPOL Conference: autonomous vehicles high on safety agenda
    February 2, 2017
    Safety and autonomous vehicles exercised the minds of some of Europe’s senior police officers at the recent TISPOL European Traffic Police Network Conference in the UK. The European Union looks like missing its target of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020. Just when European police forces are trying to get back on target, along comes the autonomous vehicle with all its inherent safety issues.
  • A global perspective on sustainable transportation systems
    August 21, 2013
    With nearly 400 participants from 21 countries and tribal nations, the recent 2013 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET) held in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, was a resounding success – writes Leonard Sielecki The five-day conference ran from June 23rd-27th 2013, and attracted transportation planners, engineers, environmentalists, and academics from national and state agencies, universities, and non-government organisations. It was organised and co-sponsored by the Center for Trans
  • Movin’On by Michelin sets the stage for the Mobility of the Future
    September 4, 2019
    IRF (Geneva) was pleased to partner and lead some of the sessions of the 2019 edition of the Movin’On Summit, the world summit on sustainable mobility. The successful third edition hosted about 5,000 visionaries from 44 countries between June 4th and 6th, 2019, in Montreal, Canada and discussed new and actionable solutions to move from ambition to action. Created and inspired by Michelin, the event was produced by the Movin’On Sustainable Mobility Fund, with C2 International as the organising partner. U