Day 2 of the Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Brazil featured a variety of topic-specific panels where ministers and experts discussed best practices and challenges from their countries as well as next steps required to achieve the road safety targets included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout the day, conference participants frequently referred to the ambitious road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 percent globally by 2020, emphasizing that achieving such a target will require urgent coordinated action and significant political commitment from governments around the world.
Panel topics from day 2 included:
Alongside the facilitated panel discussions, the conference provided ample opportunity for representatives from civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector to meet with decision makers and government representatives from their specific countries, to encourage political commitment and develop partnerships to achieve results.
At the closing plenary session on attaining the sustainable development goal targets on road safety, optimism ranged on the feasibility of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 percent globally by 2020, but speakers generally agreed on one point: we know what works—we know what policies and interventions work to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities—but what is missing is the political commitment to implement these proven strategies. Hopefully, panelists stated, the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety has helped secure this political commitment from participating ministries.
Floor Lieshout, Director of Alliance-member Youth for Road Safety (YOURS) and Vice-President of the Alliance Board of Directors, provided poignant closing remarks in the form of a letter from a child calling for action from global decision makers to take road safety seriously and reduce the unacceptable risk that children and vulnerable road users face on the roads everyday.
The 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety closed with the formal adoption of the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety, acknowledged by all ministers and heads of delegation convened in Brasilia. The Declaration outlines several next steps to improve global road safety following conclusions from the conference.
