The World Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Road Assessment Programme for a five year collaboration.
The MoU commits the two organisations to work together until 2011 to develop a business plan for designing and then implementing iRAP’s road risk mapping and road audit protocols for developing countries. The agreement will be overseen for the Bank by the Global Road Safety Facility, hosted at World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. IRAP is currently developing protocols in South Africa, Malaysia and Costa Rica. The programme’s sister programmes in Europe and Australia are proving very successful in highlighting road design issues, engaging policy makers, road authorities and a newly informed public, and seeing real, injury reducing, changes to dangerous sections of road network.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by iRAP’s chairman, John Dawson, and by the World Bank’s Lead Road Safety Specialist, Tony Bliss, at a press conference during the FIA Foundation’s annual meeting in Barcelona on October 19th.