Lord Robertson, the Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety has met with the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, to discuss the action needed to reverse the rising number of road traffic deaths and injuries in low and middle income countries. Also attending the meeting was Tony Bliss, the World Bank’s Lead Specialist on Road Safety and manager of the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, and David Ward of the FIA Foundation, who is currently serving as the Chairman of the Facility’s Executive Board.

 
The meeting examined the potential to integrate road traffic injury prevention into the Department for International Development's (DFID) existing transport related programs, as well as concurrent strategies to work with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank to develop procedures to quality assure the safety of road infrastructure. Despite the lack of any shared or systematic approach to road safety rating, assessment and design, the World Bank and other regional development Bank’s commit over $4 billion each year toward road investment programs.


Today, programs such as the International Roads Assessment Program (iRAP) are developing new and innovative approaches to improving road infrastructure safety and offer the potential for international finance institutions and bilateral donors to harmonize their approach to quality assuring safety, in line with the mandate given by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005). Douglas Alexander offered to explore how DFID can engage with these issues especially in terms of its strategic relationship with the World Bank, and more specifically in terms of iRAP opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Photograph: (left to right) Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, UK, Lord Robertson, Chairman, Commission for Global Road Safety and Tony Bliss, Lead Road Safety Specialist, World Bank