Road safety experts, officials and practitioners from across Sub Saharan Africa have endorsed the recommendations of the Make Roads Safe report at a meeting in Addis Ababa.
Government representatives, police and NGOs from more than 20 African countries meeting at the Sub Saharan Africa Transport Programme (SSATP) gave their strong support to the Commission for Global Road Safety's 'Make Roads Safe' report.
Make Roads Safe campaigners from the FIA Foundation, AA of South Africa and AA of Kenya attended the meeting, hosted at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the Ethiopian capital, and briefed delegates on the campaign.
The SSATP road safety meeting approved the following statement which will be submitted to the SSATP annual meeting in October:
"The health and poverty implications of road crashes are as serious as that of HIV/AIDS, and therefore Governments should commit at the highest level to improve the road safety situation in Africa;
Governments should commit adequate and sustainable resources to finance road safety activities;
Governments should support and endorse the recommendations made in the 'Make Roads Safe' report"
This statement will also form the 'key messages' for a proposed African Road Safety Conference to be held in Ghana in 2007.