Multi – million dollar fund to combat hidden epidemic of road crashes
A Global Road Safety Facility has been launched by the World Bank and the FIA Foundation to combat the 1.2 million annual deaths from road traffic injuries.
The Global Facility receives an initial donation of $5 million from the World Bank, $5 million from the FIA Foundation and €1 million from the Dutch Government.
The Global Facility, which will be managed by the World Bank, aims to generate increased funding and technical assistance for global, regional and country level initiatives designed to enable low and middle income countries to implement their own road safety programmes.
The ultimate objective of the Global Road Safety Facility is to catalyze an accelerated reduction in road deaths and injuries in developing countries. More than 2.5 million lives could be saved and 200 million injuries avoided if fatality rates in poorer countries were reduced by a further 30% by 2020.
The Global Road Safety Facility was announced at a briefing in the UK House of Lords attended by UK Parliamentarians, delegates of the UN Road Safety Collaboration and UK road safety experts. The lunchtime briefing, on the ‘hidden epidemic’ of road traffic injuries in developing countries, was organized by the FIA Foundation and hosted by Lord Harrison.
David Ward, Director General of the FIA Foundation, said:
“The FIA Foundation is proud to support the establishment of this new Global Facility in partnership with the World Bank and the Government of the Netherlands. This initiative will alert governments to the need for urgent coordinated action to prevent a global catastrophe. Will the international community really stand back and allow millions to be killed and maimed every year, when we already have available the solutions and tools to prevent this hidden epidemic which causes so much poverty and human misery?”
Maryvonne Plessis-Fraissard, Transport Director of the World Bank, said:
“The road safety gap between poor and rich countries is widening. Road crashes disproportionately devastate the poor and their consequences can plunge families into poverty. We have established the Facility to support new measures that will address this global priority and help reverse the forecast trends. Achieving the goals and objectives of the Facility will require sustained commitment. We are now calling for additional support from our partners in the donor community to work with us to implement the Facility and to grow and consolidate its longer term operations.”
The Global Road Safety Facility’s mission is to ‘generate increased funding and technical assistance for global, regional and country level initiatives designed to accelerate and scale-up the efforts of low and middle income countries to build their scientific, technological and managerial capacities to prepare and implement cost-effective road safety programmes’. The Facility will be managed by the World Bank in Washington D.C.
The World Bank recently estimated road crash costs in developing countries at $100 billion. Costs for road traffic crashes include direct costs, such as medical care, property damage and insurance administration; and indirect costs including property damage, delays on the roads, loss of earnings, lost productivity and environmental costs. Because of under reporting of road injuries and lack of data in many countries, all figures are best estimates.