The 23rd meeting of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) was hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 17–18 November 2016. The meeting convened 92 people, representing international organizations, governments, NGOs, academia, foundations and private companies. The meeting was chaired by Dr E. Krug from WHO and co-chaired by Mr C. Friis Bach from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Mr Friis Bach together with the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Mr Jean Todt, were the keynote speakers.
The objectives of the meeting were to: discuss activities required to meet the road safety related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), discuss the implementation of the UNGA and WHA resolutions, inform participants on recent or upcoming global events, discuss current and future activities of the UNRSC project groups and review membership requests and provide updates on UNRSC partner activities.
The keynote speakers highlighted the importance of road safety funding and updated participants on the development of a road safety fund. The meeting went on to discuss the current status of the Save LIVES technical package; the need for coordination of country work; and the implementation of the UNGA Resolution (A/10/260) and the WHA Resolution (WHA 69.7). Regarding the latter, participants discussed the organization of the 4th UN Global Road Safety Week (Theme: Speed management, Slogan: Slow down), the World Day of Remembrance (focusing for 2016 on post-crash actions), the development of global targets and indicators and the UN Task Force on NCDs. Participants were also provided information on recent or upcoming global events.
Partners of the UNRSC's seven project groups convened to define next steps: road safety management, safer roads and infrastructure, safer vehicles, safer road users, post-crash response, monitoring and evaluation and work-related road safety. Finally, partners discussed membership related issues agreeing on the need to revise the UNRSC terms of reference. Partners also reviewed a number of applicants and welcomed new members into the UNRSC, including the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Federación Iberoamericana de Asociaciones de víctimas contra la violencia vial (FICVI) and the Institut belge de la sécurité routière (IBSR).