During the closing of the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech, Lotte Brøndum, Executive Director of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, delivered a powerful speech that resonated with attendees.
Below is the full verbatim of her remarks.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ministers, dignitaries, friends and community members.
10 years ago in March 2015 – the Alliance had our NGO meeting in Marrakech. I had the pleasure of working with Mr Boulajoul and Mr Maafa at that time. And here we are again. 10 years older, 10.000 whatsApp messages later, 10 years further into our common quest. Thanks from the Alliance for your long term support to the NGOs. Thanks for your friendship.
The NGO Meeting in Marrakech in 2015 set the stage for the 2nd Ministerial meeting in Brazil that took place later that year. I went back and saw what we the NGOs wanted to see in 2015:
We wanted to see a stop counterfeit helmets,
We wanted to see reduced speed,
We wanted to see people before cars.
We wanted less words, and more action.
But there was also a big frustration of what would happen if our voice was unheard. When rereading this, the Greek myth about Cassandra came to mind. Cassandra was blessed with the gift of prophecy, the gift of foretelling the future. But she was also cursed. The curse was that no one would believe her warnings, no matter how accurate they were. And going back to 2015 and our calls at that time, I must admit that NGOs and youth, sometimes feel like Cassandra.
The NGOs show how cars are prioritized in cities, show how thousands of pedestrians in great danger of being hit by racing cars have to zig zag through busy roads, show how people are left not knowing if the helmet they buy is of a quality that will actually save them if they are in a crash. The NGOs warn about the dangers on our roads, predict the tragic outcomes of inaction, yet our voices have often gone unheard and not listened to.
2140 is the number of days we have left to take action to reduce deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030. This ministerial has been an opportunity to commit to people, Commit to Act, commit to life.
Deaths on our roads are preventable. Every crash is a name. A face. A story. A family torn apart. Behind every preventable tragedy is a failure of accountability. And we cannot—we must not—allow these failures to continue. We committed to that in 2015. And commit today.
The Alliance NGOs Call for using the evidence that we know prevents deaths, call for backing it up with Financing and use the local knowledge and experience to ensure implementation. So we have to build the trust that we are committed to change. We need that trust in you, Ministers:
Trust that you lead the needed regulation change or enforcement, that ensures the helmet I buy is of a quality that will save me.
Trust that you want cities to be built for the people who live, work and play there.
Trust that you are willing to make the change so I get the needed support when a crash happens.
Trust that human life matters.
Trust is earned, and accountability is how we earn it.
Ministers, you have the power to change. Change doesn’t happen by chance. It happens by choice, by commitment. When we take responsibility, make commitments, we find solutions. 30km/hour, safe crossings, quality helmets —these aren’t miracles. These are active choices for change. They’re the results of accountability.
I want to applaud those who have made commitments during this conference. But history won’t judge you by what you say. It will judge you by what we do. So let’s act. Let’s lead. Let’s be accountable. Ministers, do not let this be another Cassandra moment. Let it be a moment where all our foretelling is heard.
So what happened to Cassandra who warned about dangers but was not listened to? Attempting to prove herself right in her warnings, she took a torch in one hand and an axe in the other, planning to destroy; desperately knowing what would happen if no one listened.
We will not do that, but we want to make sure that when we look back at this Conference and do not regret that we ignored the warnings.
We therefore have a symbol – call it our axe and our torch. The painting symbolizes our call for action, call for commitments and call for safer streets. I would like to hand it over to Minister Kayouth. Let it be a reminder of our joint commitment to Life.
Thank you.
