EASST joins Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech
Last week EASST was in Marrakech for the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety hosted by the Government of Morocco in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Thanks to the generous support of the FIA and FIA Foundation, representatives from 11 out of 14 EASST partner organisations were able to travel to Morocco to join the EASST team and support their respective countries’ Ministerial Delegations.
With over 2500 delegates representing over 150 countries, it was the biggest gathering of road safety professionals and Ministers ever. As we mark the halfway point of the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety 2021-2030, the conference was a key milestone moment to reflect on progress to date, assess global, regional, and national level priorities, and mobilise action for the next five years.
From the EASST region, 7 countries of operation were represented by Ministerial Delegations – each demonstrating their commitment to tackling the human, economic, and developmental burden that is road traffic death and injury.
EASST was represented well throughout the week with partners, Trustees and our Director General, Emma MacLennan, speaking at panel sessions and side events – sharing our experiences and lessons learned.
The Automobile Club of Moldova was particularly well represented with Serghei Diaconu and Tatiana Mihailova speaking several times about their country’s success in reducing urban speed limits to 30km/h around schools, hospitals and historic centres and the vital role that civil society organisations played in bringing about this achievement.
The conference was also an important opportunity for us to introduce the work of the Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory to the wider global road safety community. Along with ISET Policy Institute, we organised our own networking event with the aim of bringing together road safety stakeholders from the region and further afield to celebrate this important development towards improving road safety in a region where road casualties are disproportionately high.
Speaking at the event, Sarah Lynch, Policy Officer for the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) at the European Commission spoke of their support for this newest regional road safety observatory and her hopes for the region, which are optimistic even in sometimes difficult contexts. This sentiment was shared by Elena Lungu of the World Bank who also welcomed the work of the Observatory and stressed the importance of working together to use road safety data to improve road safety and reduce casualties.
On the final day, Emma MacLennan took to the stage in her guise as Deputy Head of the Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory to moderate the panel on Leveraging Data for Road Safety. In her opening remarks, Emma pointed out how data had recurred as a theme throughout the conference and how it needs to take a central role in order to make meaningful progress over the next five years.
The role of data was also acknowledged in the Marrakech Declaration presented at the Closing Ceremony. The Declaration reaffirms the importance of continued action through 2030 and beyond on all road safety related targets of the 2030 Agenda and sets out a 27 point frame of reference covering all the key areas we need address to get there.
Our EASST network concluded the week by meeting together to reflect on the outcomes of the conference and how we can follow up on what we have experienced. Many of our partners commented on how proud they were to see so many representatives from their countries attending and noted how this has changed since previous Ministerial Conferences – demonstrating a commitment to taking road safety seriously. We are excited about what the future holds and look forward to the next five years.