Regional Road Safety Workshop for Latin America
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (13-14 March 2017). “Strengthening road safety governance and best practices to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” was the theme of the regional road safety workshop organized by the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Argentinian Road Safety National Agency, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Besides CITA, represent by Mr.Horacio Marcucci, Vice-President of Applus Argentina, more than 150 participants, from 17 Latin American countries, including Government (national and local) officials, representatives of the private sector, and civil society, participated at the event.
The workshop combined presentations from international and Latin-American experts with plenary discussions and working groups organized in thematic areas focused around Safer Vehicles, Safer Roads and Mobility and Road Safety Governance.
This work has led to several results and proposals, addressed to national and provincial authorities in charge of developing and maintaining federal, provincial (state) and municipal road safety policies in Latin America.
Participants expressed a great concern with the relatively slow implementation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety in Latin America, emphasizing the need to improve road safety, a particularly difficult challenge in countries with a federal structure.
The participants concluded by calling for a continuous regional dialogue on road safety governance and regional and global best practices as well as underlined the importance of establishing and strengthening a regional expert network on the topic. They called upon organizations within the United Nations system and the regional multilateral developing banks to continue to address the topics discussed during the workshop and organize follow-up activities.
The level of resources devoted to road safety at the global level continues to falter in comparison to other global scourges. The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety shared during the opening remarks about a proposal that is being prepared by UNECE, in collaboration with the Special Envoy and in consultations with other UN Regional Commissions and the WHO, for a potential UN Global Road Safety Fund.