JH-IIRU Participates in the 19th Meeting of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration
Updated April 11, 2014
This week, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) will participate in the 19th meeting of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) in New York City. The overall goal of the collaboration is to strengthen and facilitate international cooperation and coordination among UN agencies and other international partners to improve road safety as well as to implement UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions and the recommendations of the World Report thereby supporting country programs.
The biannual meetings, which rotate locations internationally call together not only UNRSC members, but also national partners from around the world, including representatives from regional and local ministries of health and transport.
The most current meeting, taking place April 8-9, 2014, will include the Minister of Transport, Argentina and the Deputy Minister of Interior, Russian Federation as keynote speakers. The meeting will have five objectives: 1). to provide an update of the Decade of Action; 2). to discuss implementation of the UNGA resolution; 3). to discuss progress and future global road safety initiatives; 4). to discuss current and future activities of the project groups; 5). to provide updates on UNRSC partner activities and review membership requests.
Updates:
The 19th meeting of the UNRSC concluded with much discussion centering around the past progress and future of global road safety initiatives, including updates on the monitoring and evaluation of the Decade of Action by JH-IIRU director, Adnan Hyder. Also up for discussion: The challenges of police enforcement in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including lack of equipment.
At the close of the meeting, with WHO Director of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, Etienne Krug declaring that more needs to be done, more than 40 indicators were being finalized to continue to monitor progress of the Decade of Action.
Panel discussion featuring FIA President, Jean Todt; Michele Yeoh of Make Roads Safe; Health Ministers from Argentina and Brazil; and Etienne Krug, WHO
JH-IIRU Director Adnan Hyder updates UNRSC members on monitoring and evaluation of the Decade of Action
Etienne Krug, Director, Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, WHO, reviews progress of Decade of Action
Gayle DiPietro, GRSP, emphasizing the importance of enforcement
About the UNRSC, courtesy of the World Health Organization (http://who.int/roadsafety/about/en/):
In April 2004, the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES58/289 on “Improving global road safety” invited WHO, working in close cooperation with the United Nations regional commissions, to act as coordinator on road safety issues across the United Nations system. The World Health Assembly accepted this invitation in May 2004 and WHO subsequently set up the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) which holds biannual meetings to discuss global road safety issues.
The Collaboration is an informal consultative mechanism whose members are committed to road safety efforts and in particular to the implementation of the recommendations of the World report on road traffic injury prevention. The goal of the Collaboration is to facilitate international cooperation and to strengthen global and regional coordination among UN agencies and other international partners to implement UN General Assembly Resolutions and the recommendations of the World report thereby supporting country programs.