In accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution 75/308 on “Scope, modalities, format and organization of the high-level meeting on improving global road safety”, the President of the General Assembly organised the 3rd December 2021 High Level event in the United Nations Headquarters in New York to support the General Assembly on Road Safety to be held in July 2022.  

This stakeholders dialogue aims to provide the international community with an important opportunity to take stock of progress, identify bottlenecks, mobilise all stakeholders, recommit to actions on promoting road safety at all level, to lay a solid foundation for the successful convening of the General Assembly on road safety. The event also targets to identify strategies to generate and effectively use long-term sustainable funding for road safety.  

During her intervention, H.E. Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy expressed her gratitude to the President of General Assembly of the United Nations for inviting the African Union Commission in this important meeting. She noticed that the African Union today is recognised as one of the main and valuable interlocutor in terms of Road Safety on the African Continent. 

The AU Commissioner presented on various achievements of the African Union Commission in terms of policy and strategic framework and insisted on the lack of solid funding to implement continental ambitions for Road Safety.  While exploring solutions, H.E the Commissioner added further that “As insurances and premiums are related to road accident costs, it should be a must to use a part of the premiums to improve road safety and thus facilitate lower total accident deaths and serious injuries”.  

H.E Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, insisted workable solutions focusing on projects that take advantage of digitalization for traffic management, car control, speed management, etc. She further emphasized that funding for road safety must be seen in terms of potential benefits that go beyond saving lives. For example, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project will obviously save lives but also fight against climate change, save resources, fight against traffic jams.” 

The meeting gave special consideration to the Africa’s situation in terms of Road Safety and came up with a practical tools to finance Road safety from domestic and international sources. The conclusions of the event should support the outcome of the UN General Assembly on Road Safety in 2022.

 

For media inquiries, please contact: 

Molalet Tsedeke| Directorate of Information and Communication| African Union Commission |mobile+251 (0) 911630631| E-mail: Molalett@africa-union.org| 

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