Every year, as a consequence of road traffic crashes, more than 1.2 million people are killed globally, while another 50 million are injured. Approximately 90% of all road crashes occur in low- and middle-income countries.Even though road safety is an important sustainable development issue, it is yet relatively underappreciated and greatly underfunded. Recognizing the need to support Member States in urgently addressing road safety challenges, two of the regional commissions of the United Nations initiated a project on road safety performance reviews to assist African countries in strengthening their national road safety management capacities and improving their national road safety records.
In practice, a Road Safety Performance Review assesses the current road safety situation, helps the Government to identify the most critical safety aspects and recommends actions to be taken. Based on the identified priority needs, capacity-building seminars and workshops are organized for national road safety stakeholders. The project thus raises general awareness of road safety issues by sensitizing experts as well as the public sector and non-governmental sectors, of the need to set ambitious road safety targets and to implement specific measures to improve road safety.
The project in Cameroon was conducted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, supported by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety.
In practice, a Road Safety Performance Review assesses the current road safety situation, helps the Government to identify the most critical safety aspects and recommends actions to be taken. Based on the identified priority needs, capacity-building seminars and workshops are organized for national road safety stakeholders. The project thus raises general awareness of road safety issues by sensitizing experts as well as the public sector and non-governmental sectors, of the need to set ambitious road safety targets and to implement specific measures to improve road safety.
The project in Cameroon was conducted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, supported by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety.