The Sixth Global Meeting was held 9–13 April 2019 and was attended by 270 participants including NGOs and road safety stakeholders from 76 countries around the world.
Highlights included workshops, training, the poster exhibition opened by Jean Todt, the High-Level Symposium, the presentation of the FedEx Road Safety Award, UN Global Road Safety Week event, photo exhibition and the preparations for UN Global Road Safety Week and the Third Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden 2020. The Global Meeting culminated in the General Assembly where two new board members were elected. Read on to find out more. Find more photos from the Global Meeting HERE. Find presentations from a selection of workshops HERE.
Poster Exhibition
We were honored to have the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, and Global Road Safety Ambassador Michelle Yeoh, open the poster exhibition. 44 NGOs presented posters to the high-level guests who asked questions and offered advice and support.
The exhibition was followed by a demonstration and chance to try traditional Greek dancing.
High-Level Symposium
High-level panels discussed the Decade of Action, and perspectives toward 2030. The NGO Declaration was presented to Lena Kling of the Government of Sweden to signal the commitment of the NGOs toward the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and call on governments around the world to commit strategic action and funding to road safety.
The symposium was opened with a video message from HRH Prince Michael of Kent and a welcome by Ioannis Malandrakis, Mayor of Platanias.
NGO Declaration
FedEx Road Safety Award
The second FedEx Road Safety Award was presented to three NGOs that have demonstrated exceptional growth and commitment to road safety. The three 2019 winners were:
Les Ambassadeurs de la Securite Routiere
Safe Kids Philippines
Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport
In his presentation, Rock Sherman, FedEx Europe Express, paid tribute to the three organizations’ achievements.
UN Global Road Safety Week event
200 people processed through the streets of Chania in support of the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week. NGOs carried 154 photographs of road crash victims to demonstrate the number of people lost every hour on the world’s roads. NGOs wrote their commitments and demands on a board.
Photo exhibition sponsored by FedEx Express Europe
Photographs from Alliance members around the world demonstrated the valuable work that NGOs do under the theme of “From Global Commitment to Local Action”. The exhibition was opened by Rock Sherman, FedEx Express Europe who paid tribute to the work that NGOs do in difficult situations around the world.
Memorial Visit
100 Global Meeting attendees visited Christos Polentas Park, a memorial to all the road traffic crash victims in Crete.
Global Meeting
Saturday 13 April saw the internally-focused day of the Global Meeting. The key takeaways were preparation for the Third Global Ministerial Conference in Sweden in 2020 and the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week.
Outcomes
Networking and sharing:
The FedEx Global Road Safety Award was presented to three NGOs
A poster exhibition, opened by Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, and Ms. Michelle Yeoh, Global Road Safety Ambassador.
For the first time, the Global Meeting was held back-to-back with the UNRSC. This allowed synergy between the attendees, and further strengthened the road safety community.
Alliance member the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) presented their progress report on the Star Rating for School app.
270 attendees from 76 countries participated of the biggest Global Meeting so far.
Advocacy:
The NGO Declaration, which calls for an extension of SDG target 3.6 to 2030, to reinforce a global level accountability system, and scale up financing for road safety at a national and international level.
As part of the meeting the #50by30 campaign was presented to demand an extension of the SDG target 3.6 to 2030.
The Global Meeting continues to be an opportunity to raise road safety profile in the city where the meeting takes place, and put this important issue on the authorities’ agenda. The participation of high level authorities such as Mr. Ioannis Malandrakis, Mayor of Platanias, Dr. Etienne Krug, Director, Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO; Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety; Ms. Lena King, Deputy Director-General, Division of Transport and Society, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, Government of Sweden, and Mr. Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General, DG MOVE, European Commission, and European Road Safety Coordinator, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission, show the relevance of NGOs and the Global Meeting and the commitment of the international community.
23 workshops took place during the meeting. Each of this workshop finalized with a conclusion and call to action for those working on the specific fields.
As part of the Tourism and Road Safety workshop, lead by EASST, a communication was issued with a set of nine recommendations to improve road safety. Find the communication HERE.
Four regional meetings took place (Latin America, North America & Europe, Asia, and Africa), where the participants brainstormed on how to mobilize their governments to participate in the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.
The five pillar working groups had a breakout session to brainstorm and provide their inputs to develop community based activations during the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.
200 Global Meeting attendees walked through the streets of Chania and carried 154 photographs of road crash victims to demonstrate the number of people lost every hour on the world’s roads.
A moment’s silence was held for road victims.
At the end of the Global Meetings all the members came to stage and hung their personal commitment for the next year on road safety.
General Assembly
The Global Meeting closed with the General Assembly, where members of the Alliance review progress and financials since the last General Assembly and vote on the bylaws and board appointments. Prerana Arora, People’s Trust Jaipur, and Kulanthayan Mani, Safe Kids Malaysia, were appointed to the board.
Read more about the General Assembly and see the minutes and updated bylaws HERE.
The meeting closed with NGOs sticking their commitments on the meeting room backdrop.
Evaluation
Almost 100% of respondents ranked the meeting to have met or exceeded their expectations. The Global Meeting exceeded expectations to the highest degree for North and Latin American participants.
Almost all participants ranked the program as very relevant or relevant.
The overall majority of respondents found that the Global Meeting was successful or very successful in meeting three of its main objectives.
Specifically:
99% indicated that the Global Meeting had been very successful or successful in sharing knowledge and best practices.
99% indicated that the Global Meeting was very successful or successful in encouraging and mobilizing the NGO contribution to the Fifth UN Global Road Safety Week.
93% indicated that the Global Meeting had been successful or very successful in facilitating encouraging and mobilizing the NGO contribution for the Third Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to be held in Sweden in 2020.
A few responses to the favorite part of the meeting were:
High Level Symposium!
Networking with a variety of road safety practitioners who are all doing great work in their country/community. Reading about all the different NGOs through the poster session. Very informative.
Pre-meeting workshops and training
Both plenary and targeted workshops. The quality of facilitators was high and the topics were quite stimulating and relevant to our work.
Least favorite part:
The location. It was a long distance from the conference center to the airport and town.
Overlapping of interesting workshops and with the UNRSC.
Post-crash care session.
Visa process was tedious and not clear the documentation required, especially for African countries.
Not coverage of lunch and accommodation for all days.
Choice being close to forced to be part of the promotion of one specific NGO (by walking through Chania with victims pictures)
Suggestions for the next meeting:
Add more trainings.
Provide more grants for NGOs to attend.
It would be desirable that the venue is in a place of interest, since the trips suppose many hours and also the time that we share between activities is important.
In the Global Meeting one of the most enriching experiences is to be able to meet proposals from other NGOs and share good practices. I think it’s interesting to do group dynamics to generate this exchange and that the workshops also have a practical part. At the same time, it would be helpful if there are not so many work-shops at the same time.
There can be pitching and winning of a symbolic financial support for a good idea. This motivation will increase the generation of bright ideas more than usual.
Brief introduction of new members to the old members for knowing each other better.
