Prince Michael of Kent presents Poghos Shahinyan with a certificate on completing the FIA Foundation Road Safety Scholarship Programme, alongside Lord Robertson of Port Ellen
l-r John Dawson, iRAP Chairman, Serghei Diaconu, Lord Dubs, Alexei Cretu, Automobile Club of Moldova, outside Milestii Mici, Moldova
Alumni of the FIA Foundation’s Road Safety Scholarship Programme have been pivotal in persuading the Armenian and Moldovan governments to create National Road Safety Councils. In both countries the new National Road Safety Council has been personally authorised by the Prime Minister.
In Armenia, the Prime Minister will chair the National Road Safety Council and the Deputy Prime Minister and other senior ministers and officials are also included as members. Its aim will be to drive forward the country’s new road safety strategy. The Council’s secretariat will be led by Poghos Shahinyan, whose road safety NGO (also called the National Road Safety Council) was established with the support of the FIA Foundation in 2005. Mr Shahinyan was the first ‘road safety fellow’ sponsored by the FIA Foundation as part of the John Smith Fellowship Programme, a governance programme run by the John Smith Memorial Trust in the UK. Following his fellowship, Poghos Shahinyan was determined to improve road safety in Armenia, and the NGO he leads, which now included USAID and DfID amongst its sponsors, has been responsible for initiatives to improve traffic policing and to promote seat belt wearing. The council was instrumental in securing tough amendments to legislation on seat belt and helmet wearing, and wearing rates have subsequently increased dramatically. Mr Shahinyan also assisted with the first FIA Foundation Road Safety Scholarship Programme in 2009, mentoring participants.
Another alumni of the FIA Foundation Scholarship Programme has led successful efforts to establish an official Road Safety Council in Moldova. Serghei Diaconu, President of the Moldovan Automobile Club, has lobbied for the government to make road safety a priority and organised a high level Make Roads Safe seminar (co-funded by the FIA Foundation) in October 2009. The new Moldovan National Road Safety Council will oversee a strategy to improve driver training, ensure safe road infrastructure and tackle speeding.