Funded by the European Union, EASST has assisted with the organisation and delivery of three sub-regional workshops held in Chisinau, Tbilisi and Almaty between 22nd October and 5th November 2014 with the theme of ‘’Road Safety Fundamentals and Interventions’’. The workshops were conducted within the framework of the TRACECA Road Safety II project led by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) with support from the Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST) and its partner the Automobile Club of Moldova (ACM) who assisted with the organisation of events in Chisinau.
The TRACECA II project aims to promote road safety and reduce road deaths and injuries in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. The workshops brought together representatives from government agencies, civil society groups and private enterprises from nine of the TRACECA beneficiary countries to build local and regional road safety networks, provide examples of good practice and share experience and ideas. EASST partners from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine participated, and demonstrated their shared skills and knowledge of road safety challenges in the region.
EASST’s Dmitry Sambuk, Chinara Kasmambetova and Naimjon Mirzorakhimov participate in the Almaty events
The three-day workshops focused on improving participants’ knowledge of the risk factors approach and the value of implementing evidence-based strategies and interventions. The participants took part in interactive and practical exercises designed to assess and enhance their knowledge and skills on the design of community and school based pilot interventions, and to highlight the challenges to be expected when implementing road safety initiatives in partnership.
The objectives of the workshop were:
– to assess and improve the knowledge of participants on the main risk factors linked to road traffic crashes, and the importance of evidence based approach;
– to assess and improve content expertise in the design of evidence-based small -scale pilot interventions specifically targeting risk factors initiatives, effective public awareness campaigns and school-based educational programmes;
– to define a concrete in-country pilot intervention to be implemented during the next 12 months;
– to help participants constitute multi-sectorial and multidisciplinary sub-regional and national working groups with a common vision in road safety.
The workshops launched a series of activities to be implemented by the GRSP and a consortium of partners as part of the TRACECA Road Safety II project which aims to reduce road crashes and trauma by firstly building regional and national partnership between stakeholders; and secondly by strengthening capacity building through the design and implementation of pilot community-based interventions.
EASST Director Emma MacLennan led sessions and facilitated workships in Moldova and Georgia, and was joined by EASST partner Deputy Minister Serghei Diaconu in Chisinau, and by EASST partner Gela Kvashilava in Tbilisi. In the Kazakh capital Almaty, EASST’s Dmitry Sambuk and Chinara Kasmambetova facilitated workshops on risk factors and interventions (pictured above).
For further information about the TRACECA II programme contact: Liana Ghukasyan, Regional Project Coordinator, GRSP: liana.ghukasyan@ifrc.org
