Global Meeting of NGOs Advocating for Road Safety in Brussels, Belgium

With support from the Flemish Ministry of Mobility, Social Economy and Equal Opportunities, Belgium and the FIA Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO) recently hosted the first "Global Meeting of NGOs Advocating for Road Safety" in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting brought together more than 100 participants from 70 road safety and road victims' organizations from more than 40 countries. Many of the participating NGOs were created by people who are either victims of road traffic crash or they had lost a child or loved one in a road traffic crash.

Nearly 1.3 million people die on the world's roads every year, and as many as 50 million others are injured. Many of those affected are pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists and users of public transport. Typically, they are from low-income and middle-income countries and often between the ages of 10 and 24 years. The consequences of these crashes go well beyond these statistics; they affect entire families and communities for many years. In many countries, the services to support victims and their relatives need to be further developed.

"This need not be so", states Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO's Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability and also Chairman, UN Road Safety Collaboration. "There are options for preventing road traffic crashes and for improving services for victims and their families. The road safety and road victim NGOs who gathered in Brussels for the meeting can be instrumental in catalyzing the national and international response. They are an inspiration and a reminder that all societies and all of us as individuals need to step up our efforts. So many precious lives are at stake, and inaction is not an option."

The objectives of the meeting were to foster a greater understanding of the expertise and needs of road safety and road victim NGOs; share knowledge, experiences and approaches to advocating for road safety and road crash victims; identify opportunities for greater collaboration among these NGOs and other organizations. Participants also prepared a statement from the NGOs to be presented to the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow in November 2009.

The WHO -sponsored meeting in Brussels took place at a time when the rate of road accidents in a country like Kenya continues to severely rise on daily basis with reports accounting for many innocent people who are left with serious injuries and deaths that are causing untold misery to their families. Participating prominently at the meeting from Kenya was the Executive Director of Chariots of Destiny Organization Ms Casey Marenge, a road safety advocate who herself is a victim of road crash. Casey who is also one of the global Youth Ambassadors for the road safety campaign initiative of the Make Roads Safe organization, USA, presented a paper about her firsthand experience on “Improving services for victims and their families”. She highlighted issues on the approaches that Chariots of Destiny Organization has taken to enhancing services for victims and calling upon the government to improve the responses of the health, social and criminal justice sectors to road crash victims and their families. (Click here for the full text of her speech and the power point presentation.)