Target setting is now becoming mainstream in road safety policy, and recognized as a necessary step towards casualty reduction and a means of prioritizing road safety. This is good news and the gTKP supported UNDA project has helped to promote and reinforce the principle of target setting as a road safety tool. But, this is not the end of the story: setting a target, particularly if it is aspirational rather than empirically based, is not sufficient in itself, and the project can only be a first step. Laudable as it is that there should be political endorsement of regional or national targets, and the value of this should not be underestimated, the real benefits in terms of casualty reduction will only be realised through concrete action.
It is highly hoped that member States and particularly low and middle income countries will use project’s recommendations when drafting road safety policies, strategies or setting their own national road traffic casualty reduction targets to follow-up on the invitation by the General Assembly.
The final report on the implementation of the project, including conclusions and recommendations is available in six languages on the websites of the regional commissions. It is also available in English here in our Knowledge centre.
This is the end-of-cycle report of Development Account (DA) project “Improving Global Road Safety: Setting Regional and National Road Traffic Casualty Reduction Targets”. The project was a continuation of efforts to implement the recommendations made in United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/5 on “Improving global road safety”.
The gTKP supported project spanned over a period of approximately two years (2008-2009) and included the five United Nations Regional Commissions (RCs): Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) as lead agency, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).