Jamal Saghir, Director of Energy, Transport, and Water, World Bank
José Daboub, Managing Director of the World Bank, calls for a Decade of Action with Michelle Yeoh, Make Roads Safe global ambassador
The World Bank and the six leading development banks have published a joint statement outlining a new harmonised approach to improving road safety, in a significant policy success for the Make Roads Safe campaign.
The World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank issued their declaration ‘A Shared Approach to Managing Road Safety’ ahead of the Moscow Ministerial Conference on road safety. The statement commits the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to “ensure that safety is integrated in all phases of planning, design, construction, appraisal, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure” and to work together on actions including:
- Strengthening road safety management capacity;
- Implementing safety approaches in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of road infrastructure projects;
- Improving safety performance measures; and
- Mobilizing more and new resources for road safety.
Jamal Saghir, Director of Energy, Transport, and Water at the World Bank, speaking on behalf of the participating MDBs, said.
“All MDB’s are committed to taking a leading role to address what is becoming one of the most significant public health development priorities of the early 21st century. As development professionals, we will work together to bring this growing epidemic on the roads of low and middle-income countries under control over the coming decade. We also have a longer-term vision of eliminating these unnecessary and unacceptable deaths and injuries.”
The MDBs also endorse the Commission for Global Road Safety’s estimate that five million lives and 50 million serious injuries can be saved over the coming decade if sufficient resources are applied to road injury prevention.
The move by the MDBs follows a three year advocacy campaign by the Commission for Global Road Safety and the Make Roads Safe campaign to highlight the need for road safety to become a greater priority for the development banks. In the Commission’s 2006 and 2009 ‘Make Roads Safe’ reports and at the ‘Safer Roads’ conference organised by the Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) in July 2008, the Commission urged the end of multilateral financing for ‘killer roads’ and greater harmonization of road safety procedures and dialogue between the MDBs. Commission Chairman Lord Robertson and Make Roads Safe ambassador Michelle Yeoh have also held a number of high level meetings with senior MDB officials, including World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Managing Director Juan José Daboub, and the President of the Inter American Development Bank Luis Alberto Moreno. Thomas Mirow, President of the EBRD, also spoke at the ‘Safer Roads’ conference.
Welcoming the statement, Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, said:
“The multilateral development banks should be congratulated for this significant policy statement. It is a powerful and unequivocal pledge to make road safety a priority in the banks’ operations, and represents exactly the kind of leadership that the Make Roads Safe campaign has been calling for as we work towards the proposed ‘Decade of Action’. The development banks can be a force for good, leading by example and shaping a new road safety paradigm for the next decade. But it is essential that these words, and the unity of purpose they describe, are quickly followed by concrete action to improve road safety and make road injury prevention an integral part of the day to day work of the banks at every operational level”.
Michelle Yeoh, Make Roads Safe global ambassador, said:
“I have witnessed the terrible, tragic impact of badly designed roads in developing countries. This is preventable, if sufficient attention is paid to community needs and basic safe road design. So I am delighted that the World Bank and the major development banks have made this strong commitment to road safety, and look forward to seeing the practical results of this policy, in terms of new road safety capacity, better deployment of resources for road safety and fewer casualties on roads funded with international aid money”.
The MDB Statement ‘A Shared Approach to Managing Road Safety’ can be downloaded here >
See here for the proceedings of the Commission for Global Road Safety’s 2008 conference ‘Safer Roads’ >