Alliance welcomes new UN Road Safety Fund

Of Alliance members surveyed in the learning needs assessment in 2015, 68% considered funding to be their biggest challenge. This is backed up in the draft proposal for a new UN road safety fund produced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which finds that road injury prevention currently is “not adequately funded at local, national, and global levels.”

One role of the Alliance is to make the case for road safety NGOs and to promote and build up our members. We are therefore very supportive of the proposal for the new road safety fund, which we consider to have huge potential for building the capacity of NGOs to tackle road deaths and meet the SDGs. 

The main thrust of the Alliance’s response to the consultation was:

• Strong support for the fund and its objectives, which are based on the five pillars and the risk areas described in the SaveLives package
• Support for the proposed organizational structure and three-stage establishment process
• A call for stronger emphasis on the role of NGOs in service delivery, as agents of accountability, data collection, and monitoring and reporting
• The need for a budget specifically reserved for execution by NGOs and accountability for different parts of the budget, separated to enable faster delivery
• A call for a clear and public selection process with information accessible to all stakeholders and an annual consultation with NGOs and other stakeholders. 

Other Alliance members also responded to the call for comments. You can read Global NCAP’s response HERE.

In particular, we would like to congratulate Jean Todt, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, who was instrumental in pushing for the creation of this fund. 

View the draft consultation HERE.