The UK is working with Jamaica to drive down its road deaths

A new partnership between Jamaica and the UK is intended to reduce road deaths in the Caribbean country. This novel agreement on improving road safety forms part of international twinning programme. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD are joining forces for this twinning initiative. Under the programme Jamaica and the UK will promote the implementation of best practices in road safety data collection. The goal of the twinning is to help Jamaica a
April 11, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
RSSA new partnership between Jamaica and the UK is intended to reduce road deaths in the Caribbean country. This novel agreement on improving road safety forms part of international twinning programme. The 2791 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the 1102 International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD are joining forces for this twinning initiative. Under the programme Jamaica and the UK will promote the implementation of best practices in road safety data collection. The goal of the twinning is to help Jamaica align its road safety data to international standards - as recommended by ITF’s International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) - as an important step towards more effective road safety policies. Compared with the Americas as a whole, the share of road deaths in the non-Latin Caribbean is currently more than 2.5 times higher than its share of registered vehicles. The Road Safety Unit of Jamaica’s Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing is leading the way on road crash data in the Caribbean. With the help of the twinning programme, Jamaica will be put into a position to share best practices and knowledge with other countries in the region.

The first aspect of the twinning initiative is currently being carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (777 TRL) and has the financial support of IDB. It involves a comprehensive review of how data relevant for road safety analyses are collected, stored, analysed in Jamaica, and how they are then used to inform road safety strategies and interventions. As part of the review, the TRL team interviewed representatives from the Jamaican Police Force, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of National Security, universities and the Maritime Training Institute. During a one-day workshop, participants were presented with crash data systems and how to devise evidence-led road safety policies to more than 70 participants from seven other Caribbean countries (Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Belize and Guyana) which was organised by IDB.

Under the objectives of the IDB´s Road Safety Strategy for the Latin American and the Caribbean region, the bank aims to support the Latin American countries in strengthening their institutional and technical capacities in road safety throughout activities such this. The International Transport Forum initiated the first road safety twinning programme between Argentina and Spain in 2009, which subsequently led to the creation of the Ibero American Road Safety Observatory. The joint initiative of ITF, IDB and the Jamaican and UK governments forms part of their commitment to the United Nation’s 3439 Decade of Action for Road Safety, which aims to stabilise and reduce the number of global road fatalities, currently at 1.3 million/year, by 2020.

Related Content

  • Silk Road: 'viable alternative'
    February 17, 2012
    The final results of the International Road Transport Union's (IRU) New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI)-Phase 2 have confirmed road trade links between Europe and Asia as an economically-attractive and viable alternative to traditional, saturated maritime trading routes.
    Read More
  • European transport funding until 2024
    November 8, 2019
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is setting out its new transport development plan for the coming five years. The EBRD has approved a new Transport Sector Strategy for the 2019-2024 period, intended to refine the previous strategy. The aim is to work in a more focussed way on the emerging green economy and climate targets in a sector that, while slow to change, is a catalyst for economic and inclusive growth. Since the EBRD’s previous strategy came into force, global policymak
    Read More
  • IRF cooperation agreement with Columbia
    February 9, 2012
    IRF Washington announces strategic cooperation agreement with the Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure The IRF Washington Program Center (IRF WPC) and the Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure (CCI) have announced their intent to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate on technology transfer, training and dissemination of best-practices in Colombia
    Read More
  • Indonesia Ministry of Public Works invites delegates to 1st IRF Asia Regional Congress
    June 30, 2014
    A personal invitation from director general Waskito Pandu of the Ministry of Public Works, Indonesia Indonesia’s Master Plan for Economic Development to 2025, which aims to propel the country into the 10 major economies in the world by 2025, calls for a national connectivity vision captured by a simple slogan ‘Locally Integrated. Globally Connected’.
    Read More

Highlighted Content