The Stockholm Declaration and the future of road safety in the EASST region
This week the Swedish Government is playing host to the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. EASST partners are meeting with their Ministerial delegations to discuss the impact of the Decade of Action and opportunities for the future of road safety across the region under the new Stockholm Declaration, which adopts the target to reduce road deaths by 50 per cent by 2030.
The conference is co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and will involve minister-led delegations from more than 100 countries as well as representatives of international agencies, civil society organisations and the private sector. The theme for the Conference is “Achieving Global Goals 2030”. Following on from Moscow (2009) and Brasilia (2015), the conference will be an opportunity for delegates to share successes and lessons from implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020: chart future strategic directions for global road safety up to 2030 and beyond: and define ways to accelerate action on proven strategies to save lives. The Conference will also provide an opportunity to link road safety to other sustainability challenges.
The final outcome of the conference launched by the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure, Mr. Tomas Eneroth, is the Stockholm Declaration (available in Russian here). The Declaration is ambitious and forward-looking and connects road safety to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Stockholm Declaration also reflects the recommendations of the conference’s Academic Expert Group and its independent and scientific assessments of progress made during the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and its proposals for a way forward.
Key to achieving the goals of the Stockholm Declaration will be strong road safety leadership.
Our EASST partners are therefore working closely with their national governments to provide the leadership needed to ensure sustainable and meaningful change. As civil society organisations, our partners help keep road safety on the agenda and unite stakeholders with a common goal. They are able to provide a unique perspective on the impact of policies on local communities – and in particular to vulnerable road users – that is absolutely essential to good road safety outcomes.
Throughout the Conference, and beyond, our EASST partners will be working closely with the Ministerial delegations to help them navigate the key issues which are most relevant for their countries. For a number of partners, meeting their delegations led to support for their projects and the prospect of formal partnerships being formed.
“As an NGO we create a platform for all the stakeholders and decision-makers to get together and discuss issues through meetings or roundtable discussions. Most of the time the representatives of these agencies say they don’t have the opportunity to get together and share their concerns, experience and knowledge, and to see where there’s a gap. So when you bring them altogether, you create a platform where you can discuss why problems are happening, how we can move forward and how we can improve.”
Vafa Huseynli, National Automobile Club of Azerbaijan.
