In a historic debate in March 2008 the UN General Assembly in New York approved the first ever UN Ministerial Conference on global road safety. This decision was the result of sustained work by many people and organisations, but it was especially pleasing for the FIA Foundation because the original proposal for a UN Conference was made by the Commission for Global Road Safety and advocated in many countries through the Make Roads Safe campaign, both initiatives that the FIA Foundation established and leads. I was delighted to be part of a delegation which presented our million name petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the day of the UN debate.
FIA Foundation Director General David Ward
The UN Conference will be hosted by the Russian Federation in Moscow in November 2009. Over the coming year we will redouble our efforts to secure attention and serious commitments for global road safety from the international community. The Moscow Conference can and should be a milestone in the response to road traffic injuries, marking the start of a decade of determined action to defeat this avoidable epidemic.
Such action must include continuous safety improvements by road authorities and designers and by vehicle manufacturers. In July 2008 the FIA Foundation co-hosted with the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development a major conference to examine how billions of taxpayer aid dollars could be more safely invested in road infrastructure schemes in the developing world to prevent ‘killer roads’. And through the ‘Choose ESC’ campaign, the FIA Foundation has continued to put pressure on vehicle manufacturers and regulators to accelerate the introduction of life-saving vehicle technologies.
The major donor governments, public health foundations and relevant international institutions also need to wake up to the scale of the road injury epidemic. The FIA Foundation wants to see greater investment in road safety, for example through the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility, to match sympathetic rhetoric with real resources.
Although our main focus in recent years has been, and continues to be, global road safety I am pleased that over the past year the FIA Foundation has begun to play a constructive role in efforts to tackle another of the world’s great challenges, climate change.
Working together with the International Energy Agency, the UN Environment Programme and the International Transport Forum, we have launched a policy initiative to encourage ambitious improvements in fuel economy globally, with a particular focus on sustainable vehicle use in the industrialising world, where vehicle numbers are predicted to double in the coming decades. This Global Fuel Economy Initiative will be a major priority for the FIA Foundation over the coming years. We have also begun a major programme which we hope will grow still further.
Finally, and on behalf of our staff and Board of Trustees, I would like to record my immense gratitude to our outgoing Chairman, Rosario Alessi, who has guided the FIA Foundation through its first eight years with a winning combination of wisdom and good humour.
David Ward
Director General
FIA Foundation