7 udviklingsbanker forener kræfterne om at dæmme op mod et stigende antal trafikdrab i udviklingslande. Med initiativet tager de hul på FNs 10-år for trafiksikkerhed, oplyser Verdensbanken tirsdag
WASHINGTON, 19 April 2011: With 1,3 million people killed and up to 50 million injured every year in road crashes, 90 per cent of them in developing countries, traffic accidents have become the leading cause of death for young people aged 5 to 29. Road crashes now kill more people worldwide than malaria.
“In developed countries, road fatalities are going down but in developing countries they are surging because of increased road building, motor vehicles and dangerous traffic mixes that pit vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, against a growing tide of cars and trucks,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “Unless well-targeted measures are taken, there will be an escalating death toll on the roads in poor countries, which would be a terrible tragedy.”
Zoellick urged countries to invest in road safety, and called on donors to provide funds through the new initiative. Both financing and capacity-building in developing countries are needed, he said, to meet the goals of the UN Decade.
The goal is to reduce the forecast 2020 level of road deaths by 50 per cent, from 1,9 million to under one million a year. Achieving the 2020 target could save up to five million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries.
“We must make road safety a more urgent priority in the development assistance provided by multilateral development banks for road projects,” Zoellick said. “Otherwise, the cost to developing countries is too great. We must deliver the needed resources to create transformational change for safety.”
He added that leaders of the Multilateral Development Banks’ Road Safety Initiative are committed to building partnerships and raising funds from governments, the private sector and voluntary organizations to support projects in developing countries. The initiative has been coordinated by the Global Road Safety Facility.
Partners of the Multilateral Development Banks’ Road Safety Initiative include the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the World Bank.
The initiative calls for an integrated Safe System approach which promotes shared responsibility for ensuring safe mobility, and starts with countries naming a lead agency to direct a national road safety strategy.
