Save the Nation, Honored to be invited by the Government of Sweden at the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety 2020.
The invitation doesn’t only acknowledge the contributions of NGOs in the field of road safety and making it liveable to live, but we would like also to believe that my attendance to this very important meeting acknowledges the contributions we made for road safety for more than a decade.
Stockholm, Sweden February 19th 2020, Transport ministers and leaders from industries, academia and civil societies gathered in Sweden to discuss the state of global road safety and set out a new agenda for 2030.
Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world. Every day, almost 3,700 people are killed globally in road traffic crashes involving cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, or pedestrians. More than half of those killed are pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists.
Thinking seriously over this conference as it affects road safety and road crash victims. We have a huge responsibility towards attracting government and donor partners to really understand that life has no duplicate. That any life lost in road crash is the result of negligence of government to provide adequate resources to improve safety of road users. The world leaders in road safety will meet, discuss and agree but later sit down to refresh yet the real issues of safety for road users remain unsolved. Unfortunately, the actual data of road crash index along with its resultant effect of deaths and injuries are being reported statistically particularly in Africa despite the fact that there are many of such deaths and injuries that occur without being reported. Until every conference outcome carries the weight of legal framework to be enforced, we may not be getting it right timely. As we write this post, many are still being crushed by road crashes in many countries that include our country Ethiopia. The Global Alliance for road safety NGOs must engage with governments and the United Nations to ensure that lead agencies of road safety in countries must enforce its communique and resolution and failure to comply should attract penalties or sanctions that will have great impact against leaders in this direction. We should equally realise that many country representatives enjoy attending conferences without urging or advocating for the implementation of the conference outcome or resolutions. This is the time to walk the talk else we will be missing the value content of this conference of 3rd Global Road Safety conference Holden in Stockholm, Sweden.
