The symposium on Wednesday 8 March 2023 will be the focal event for the Global Meeting. Its purpose is to enable NGOs to be inspired by a breadth of speakers from inside and outside the traditional road safety sphere. It will feature three panels.
Chika Sakashita, Director of Research and Accountability, Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety
The first panel will highlight the need for evidence-based solutions at national and local levels to reduce road deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030 and bring the audience’s attention to five specific evidence based interventions. It will highlight the need and role of NGOs in ensuring government accountability and how NGOs can ensure government accountability and move government to implement evidence-based interventions.
“The road safety target can in no way be achieved through business as usual practices. We need a drastic change in our approaches switching to evidence-based interventions.” Ishtiaque Ahmed
“We do not have the option of choosing measures that are not based on evidence if we want to achieve the 2030 goals and surpass the first decade of action results. As 2030 nears the only option we have to achieve our goal is to focus relentlessly on what really works.” Saul Castelar
“It will be difficult to meet the Decade of Action target of 50% reduction in traffic crash deaths and injuries without evidence-based government action. Fundamental failures of government action are the lack of political will and the adoption of ineffective actions. The NGOs have a vital role to play in correcting these failures, and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety is a powerful resource for supporting and guiding the NGOs in this battle.” Soames Job
“We know how to prevent crashes and save lives! There is plenty of evidence on what works, in higher as well as in lower income settings. However, sometimes these effective solutions are not prioritized. NGOs have a key role in calling for solutions for which there is evidence. I look forward to discussing this in El Salvador.” Etienne Krug
Birgit Gerstenberg, Resident Coordinator, United Nations El Salvador;
Nino Paichadze, Assistant Professor, The George Washington University;
Bella Dinh-Zarr, Senior Advisor, Public Health & Transportation, FIA Foundation;
Miriam Bandes Zablah, Head of Office, UN Women, El Salvador
Jacob Mason, Director of Research and Impact, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
The second panel will discuss the connections of safe mobility and road safety with other SDGs, looking at why the SDGs are important, which SDGs are improved through a focus on road safety, and how the road safety community can leverage those SDGs.
“A key part of safer streets is modal shift from passenger cars to safe walking, cycling, and public transport. In this session, participants will explore the link with safety and hear examples of mode shift efforts. They will learn how to think and talk about mode shift, which policy tools help facilitate mode shift, and how to build political support for mode shift efforts, including how modal shift might be applied locally.” Jacob Mason
Amélie Huynh Le Maux, Communications Manager, AIP Foundation Vietnam
Daniel Mwamba, Chairman, Zambia Road Safety Trust
Vanessa Rubio, Executive Director, MOVES
Bronwen Thornton, Executive Director, Walk21
Kristin Smith, Head of Global Road Safety Policy, Uber
Shane O’Connor, Communications Advisor, FedEx
The objective of this session will be to launch the 7th UN Global Road Safety Week and inspire the road safety community, by sharing experiences of different stakeholders on how a global campaign can be used as a platform to advance policy change, implementation and enforcement. The session will highlight positive experiences, challenges, and will aim to demonstrate how different stakeholders have a key role to play in promoting the campaign. It will include a brainstorming session.
