São Paulo – A world conference on road safety will take place on November 18th and 19th in Brasília, the federal capital, with attendance of representatives of around 150 countries. Brazil is part of the group Friends of the Decade of Action, committed with the global plan to save five million lives in the planet until 2020 through an increase on road safety. Other 18 countries are also part of the initiative, among them the Arab Oman and Morocco.
In all, 1,500 people are expected for the “2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety – Time for Results”, which will has as its goal to assess the progress of actions for the reduction of deaths and injuries occurred in roads throughout the world. The goals were set as part of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, from 2011 to 2020, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The campaign asks for the countries to commit in implementing policies, programs, actions and legislation to improve road safety, especially for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. According to data released by WHO, these people account to half of the death toll in traffic.
In the event’s programming there are panels to assess actions already taken, the next steps that should be implemented to reach the goals, road safety, road safety international and national indicators, besides parallel sections about road safety management, infrastructure and mobility, motorcycles safety, sustainable mobility, among others.
The group Friends of the Decade of Action also includes the WHO itself, the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Europe, Commission for Global Road Safety, linked to the International Automobile Federation (FIA, in the French acronym), and Global Road Safety Partnership, linked to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In Brazil, the federal government and its bodies, such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Relations (Itamaraty), organized the conference.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
