Road Safety and Global Development Framework
RS:Learn Alignment
RS:Learn Components
The RS:Learn includes three core components:
- Capacity building
- Public awareness
- Partnerships
Through these components, we work towards halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups, such as women, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons.
Effective interventions for addressing road traffic injuries include designing safer infrastructure and incorporating road safety features into land-use and transport planning, improving the safety features of vehicles, improving post-crash care for victims of road crashes, setting and enforcing laws relating to key risks, and raising public awareness. These interventions require involvement from multiple sectors, such as transport, police, health, and education.
By addressing road safety holistically, we can work towards creating safer and more sustainable cities and communities for everyone.
Road Safety Framework
Every day, millions of people worldwide take to the roads to go about their daily lives. However, many are unaware of the risks they face as they travel. Road traffic injuries are a major public health concern that affects individuals, families, and communities worldwide. Road crashes are one of the leading causes of death and disability globally.
Road safety is integral to nearly every aspect of daily life, and why building sustainable cities and communities is essential. To support this vision, RS:Learn is aligned with the Global Plan of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and with the Global Road Safety Performance Targets. It aims to contribute to advancing SDG targets for Health and Well-Being, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Global Partnerships for Sustainable Development.
Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030
In September 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/74/299 “Improving global road safety”, proclaiming the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. In cooperation with other UN Road Safety Collaboration partners, WHO and the UN regional commissions have developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action, released in October 2021.
The Global Plan aligns with the Stockholm Declaration, by emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to road safety, and calling on continued improvements in the design of roads and vehicles; enhancement of laws and law enforcement; and provision of timely, life-saving emergency care for the injured. The Global Plan also reflects the Stockholm Declaration’s promotion of policies to promote walking, cycling and using public transport as inherently healthy and environmentally sound modes of transport.
Progress made during the previous Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 has laid the foundation for accelerated action in the years ahead. Among achievements are the inclusion of road safety on the global health and development agenda, broad dissemination of scientific guidance on what works, strengthening of partnerships and networks, and mobilization of resources. This new Decade of Action provides an opportunity to harness the successes and lessons of previous years and build upon them to save more lives.
The New Urban Agenda
The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. The United Nations General Assembly endorsed it at its sixty-eighth plenary meeting of the seventy-first session on 23 December 2016.
The New Urban Agenda represents a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future. If well-planned and well-managed, urbanization can be a powerful tool for sustainable development for both developing and developed countries.
The New Urban Agenda has been translated into more than 30 languages, including the six United Nations’ official languages and the most widely spoken languages in the world, such as Hindi, Bengali, and Portuguese. These translations reach more than eighty percent of the world’s population, calculating the languages by the total number of speakers.
Global Road Safety Performance Targets
In April 2018 during its seventy-fourth session, the United Nations General Assembly approved by consensus the 12 voluntary global performance targets for road safety risk factors and service delivery mechanisms and encouraged Member States to take steps, following good practices, towards achieving the voluntary global performance targets for road safety.
Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.
The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet:
Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020
On 11 May 2011, the first-ever Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 was launched with great enthusiasm and optimism across the world. Mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, the Decade is a historic opportunity for countries to stop and reverse the trend which – without action – would lead to the loss of around 1.9 million lives on the roads each year by 2020.
Governments, international agencies, civil society organizations and private companies in more than 100 countries celebrated the launch of the Decade through hundreds of national and local events. From Sri Lanka to Albania and Ethiopia to Peru, presidents and prime ministers; ministers of transport, health, and others; heads of international and nongovernmental organizations; chief executive officers of companies; road traffic victims and their families; and other concerned citizens expressed their commitment to the goal of the Decade: saving 5 million lives.
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 5-16 June 1972, Stockholm
The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm was the first world conference to make the environment a major issue. The participants adopted a series of principles for sound management of the environment, including the Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan for the Human Environment and several resolutions.
The Stockholm Declaration, which contained 26 principles, placed environmental issues at the forefront of international concerns and marked the start of a dialogue between industrialized and developing countries on the link between economic growth, the pollution of the air, water, and oceans, and the well-being of people around the world.
The Action Plan contained three main categories: a) Global Environmental Assessment Programme (watch plan); b) Environmental management activities; (c) International measures to support assessment and management activities carried out at the national and international levels. In addition, these categories were broken down into 109 recommendations.
One of the major results of the Stockholm conference was the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).