The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Participates in High-Level Conference on Road Safety

On November 18-19, 2015, members of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) traveled to Brasilia, Brazil for the Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety. The conference, hosted by the Government of Brazil and supported by the World Health Organization, hosted researchers, organization, governmental organizations, including high-level ministers from nearly every country of the world to discuss global road safety.

JH-IIRU director, Adnan Hyder, assistant scientists Katharine Allen and Connie Hoe and research associate, Nino Paichadze were on hand to participate in the conference.

Drs. Allen and Hoe arrived early to present on real-world evaluations for road safety a pre-conference meeting held by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) at the organization’s headquarters in Brasilia, while Dr. Hyder hosted the parallel session, “Monitoring and Evaluation of Road Safety at National and International Levels.”  The session was designed to discuss the importance of early integration of monitoring and evaluation in road safety programs.

In addition, the participants reviewed the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and worked to define next steps at both the global and national levels in order to achieve the Decade’s intended goal: Saving 5 million lives.

The goal of the conference was to share knowledge and spur action on what works to prevent road traffic injuries and fatalities and improve safety.