FIA Foundation has pledged US$10 million to kick start a United Nations Road Safety Trust Fund, launched by Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed.
The new fund is intended to encourage road safety action across the globe, using donations to help unlock government and municipal funding and re-focus national road safety budgets towards proven safe system and interventions.
The monies will support projects aimed to strengthen road safety management capacities, improvements to road infrastructure and vehicle design, as well as schemes to improve the behaviour of road users.
FIA – the Paris-based Federation Internationale de l’Automobile – is the governing body of motor sport and promotes safe, sustainable and accessible mobility for road users globally. The FIA Foundation, a grant-making charity supporting road safety programmes and advocacy across the world, was the first donor to the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Facility in 2005.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe estimates that for every $100 million raised and deployed by the fund, a further $3.4 billion of country and city investment can be unlocked for infrastructure and road safety programmes, saving 64,000 lives and preventing 640,000 serious injuries. To meet the road safety sustainable development goal targets for road safety by 2030 will require at least $770 million per year in catalytic financing, so the stakes are high and the challenge great.
Jean Todt, the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy for road safety, said the fund should build on the progress made over the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
