MONDAY 23 and TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2009
This is the first high-level Ibero-American Forum on Road Safety for Latin America and the Caribbean
In Madrid, Spain, specifically at:
AUDITORIUM OF THE HOTEL MELIÁ CASTILLA
Capitán Haya, 43 Madrid, SPAIN 28020
Tel:(34) 91 567 50 00 - Fax: (34) 91 567 50 51
wwww.meliacastilla.com
To introduce the issue of road safety in the political agendas of countries and international and multilateral organizations, and to increase the involvement of ministers and heads of state in the region.
To contribute to the development of regional and national road safety plans for Latin America and the Caribbean, starting with an evaluation of the current capacities and strategies, in order to achieve the established objectives.
To mobilize Latin American and regional support for the first high-level world conference (Ministerial) on road safety, to be held under the auspices of the UN in November 2009 in Moscow.
To help implement the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, the UN and WHO resolutions on road safety, and the report by the Commission for Global Road Safety.
The meeting will be held in Spanish, Portuguese and English. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided for all these languages.
The Forum will be attended by Heads of State and Government, ministers with diverse responsibilities for road safety, governmental authorities, heads of international organizations, experts of recognised prestige and representatives of NGOs working in the field of road safety. This broad-ranging and plural approach by numerous stakeholders will enrich the discussions and conclusions of this Latin American and Caribbean meeting.
With the support of:
For further information:
Mail: eisevi@segib.org
Tel.: (34) 91 590 19 80.
With more than one hundred thousand victims per year, and as the major cause of death among young people in the region, road accidents in Latin America and the Caribbean represent a massive problem that requires an equally massive effort to solve – in other words, a high level of commitment at a national and international level as well as from the Ibero-American community.
From an international perspective, the 2004 World Health Day focused for the first time on Road Safety. On this occasion, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank jointly published the “World Report on Traffic Injury Prevention”, the first global and systematic contribution towards constructing a bank of knowledge on road safety and a first step towards action at a global level. Later, several international efforts have signposted the way towards strengthening policies on road safety: the UN General Assembly resolution 58/289 of 2004 on “Improving Global Road Safety”; the organization in 2005 of the United Nations Global Road Safety Week; the official launch of the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) in 2005 in response to the UN and WHO mandate to take global action on this issue; and also in 2005, ECLAC published its first regional report on “Road Safety in Latin America and the Caribbean: the current situation and challenges”.
Various efforts have been made in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2006 the First Latin American and Caribbean Stakeholders Forum on Global Road Safety was held. This Forum, instigated by President Oscar Arias and organized with the support of ECLAC, the OPS, the FIA Foundation and the World Bank’s Global Road Safety Forum (GRSF), came in response to the United Nations mandate and was organized in successive calls in 2007 and 2008.
The XVII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Governments held in Santiago de Chile in November 2007, through its Action Plan, marked the Ibero-American commitment to work jointly on road safety. In response to this mandate, the Ibero-American Transport Ministers met in September 2008 at a meeting entitled “Youth and the Reinforcement of the Ibero-American Space for Road Safety” and signed an official declaration endorsing the creation of an Ibero-American Association and an Observatory for Road Safety. This declaration was ratified by the Ibero-American Heads of State at the XVIII Ibero-American Summit in San Salvador in October 2008.
Within this context, and in compliance with the above mandates, the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) decided to organize this First Road Safety Forum for Ibero-America and the Caribbean - “Protecting Lives” (EISEVI). The Forum is being organized by SEGIB together with the General Directorate of Traffic of Spain (DGT), the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), the International Automobile Foundation (FIA) and the MAPFRE Foundation; and with the support of the Transitional Commission for Road Safety for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Royal Automobile Club of Catalonia (RACC).
Working hand-in-hand with international and national organizations, EISEVI aims to pursue consensus-building efforts with regard to principles, criteria and best practices in road safety in the countries of our region. It will do this by supporting the development of regional and national plans for road safety in Ibero-America and the Caribbean. It will also help to implement the recommendations of the World Report on road traffic injury prevention published by the World Health Organization and the World Bank.