After introductory remarks from FIA President and HLP Chairman Jean Todt who thanked all participants for their involvement in the fight for safer roads, the meeting focused on the preparation of the July 2022 UN High Level Meeting. Nhan Tran, World Health Organization Coordinator, Unintentional Injury Prevention, updated participants on the preparatory sequence leading up to the Heads of States meeting that will be held in July 2022 in New York.  A preparatory meeting will take place at the UN Headquarters on 3 December (participants will also be able to join remotely), featuring four panel discussions under two main themes: 

• Road safety financing, with focuses on domestic and international funding;
• Stakeholders engagement, with focuses on non-state actors on one hand, and governments and international organisations on the other. 

The meeting will be recorded and available on-demand later on for those who could not attend or watch it live.

HLP Secretary Miquel Nadal then shared the conclusions of the recent workshop organised on Motor Insurance and Road Safety.  The strong commitment from all players bodes well for positive developments in this area, even more now that this specific issue has been flagged in the Global Plan for the New Decade of Action for Road Safety. 

Veronica Raffo, World Bank Senior Infrastructure Specialist, updated the audience on the status of the ‘Mobilizing Private Financing for Road Safety’ initiative, which is opening up new avenues to direct private resources into road safety projects.  The ultimate output shall be the establishment of a permanent Mobilisation Platform bringing together public authorities, private investors and development institutions so that projects can muster both the resources and the technical assistance they require to get timely implemented.

Fourth point on the agenda was the FIA Road Safety Index, a new FIA initiative supported by the FIA Innovation Fund aiming to measure road safety performance of large corporations. Claes Tingvall, AFRY Senior Consultant, explained that the index is now moving into its pilot phase with volunteer companies, and that the first practical outcomes are expected in the coming months.

The meeting finally came back on the successful expansion of Regional Road Safety Observatories since the inception of OISEVI in 2011.  This expansion, supported by the FIA, the International Transport Forum and the World Bank, is a testimony to the capacity of the international community to help achieve tangible results when it comes to improving crashes data collection across the developing world. The fact that the World Health Organization has joined the new Memorandum of Understanding in 2021 is a welcomed development that will only enhance the positive impact of this programme. The second global meeting of all Regional Observatories will take place online from 30 November to 2 December 2021.