Putting Road Safety on the Commonwealth Agenda

HRH Prince Michael of Kent speaking at the launch of the Commonwealth Expert Panel Report.

Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, I am delighted to welcome you all to the Royal Society of Arts. We are here to launch the Memorandum and Expert Recommendations of the Commonwealth Road Safety Initiative. Our aim is to put road safety on the Commonwealth agenda. And briefly this morning I would like to tell you why.

The Commonwealth has a proud record of encouraging knowledge sharing and co-operation among its 53 member countries. It promotes networks of expertise and shared interests in every world region. Commonwealth leaders have well established commitments to the sustainable development goals, especially for health and a strong focus on the well being of young people. But to date the Commonwealth has not actively engaged with the issue of road injury prevention. With respect I think this is a missed opportunity.

According to the World Health Organisation, Commonwealth countries suffer over 500,000 road fatalities every year. And today road injury is the world’s number one cause of death of children and young people between the ages of five and twenty nine. What more reason do we need to recognize road safety as an issue of relevance to the Commonwealth?

That is why I am very pleased that the Towards Zero Foundation has launched the Commonwealth Road Safety Initiative. The CRSI has brought together a distinguished panel of experts, co-chaired by Dr Agnes Binagwhao and Iain Cameron. Their work has resulted in clear recommendations to the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Kigali, Rwanda next June. They have set out a compelling case for Commonwealth leaders to devote some of their important discussions in Kigali to road safety. I am looking forward to hearing from the co-chairs very shortly.

With many High Commissioners here today, I would like to take the opportunity to encourage you all to send back to your capitals the positive case for Commonwealth co-operation on road safety. As the CRSI experts will explain there are great opportunities for sharing best practice in road injury prevention across the Commonwealth. Among Commonwealth countries there are world class centres of excellence and expertise in road injury prevention and in others there is an urgent need for capacity building in road safety policy making, legislation and programmes. This is why I believe the Commonwealth is very well placed in the decade ahead to bring together this potential supply and demand for stronger road injury prevention.

Commonwealth action would also be very timely as next year important meetings will determine a new 2030 framework for global road safety co-operation. In February the Swedish Government is hosting in Stockholm the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. This meeting will reflect on the results of the current UN Decade of Action and hopefully set a new target to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030. Then in April the UN General Assembly will hold a special debate on ‘Improving Global Road Safety’ which is expected to endorse the main recommendations of the Stockholm Ministerial Meeting.

These important high-level events are another strong reason why Commonwealth leaders meeting in Kigali should reflect on how their countries can refocus and re-energise their road safety commitments.

I am very grateful to the Swedish Government for enabling me to host a special lunch for Commonwealth Ministers attending the Stockholm meeting. This will allow us to share the CRSI recommendations with Ministers and I hope to build the case for including road safety on the Kigali agenda. I have just sent invitations to all Commonwealth Transport Ministers and I would greatly appreciate the assistance of High Commissioners to ensure that as many as possible come to Stockholm. The Ministerial meeting and our side event will be a great opportunity to discuss with us the issues we are sharing with you today.

We are also very much look forward to contributing to the Kigali meeting next June. I am very pleased that the High Commissioner for Rwanda, Her Excellency Ms Karitanyi is with us today. Together with Dr Binagwhao and the University of Global Health Equity we plan to organise a side event on road safety. We also hope to engage with other stakeholder events such as the 12th Commonwealth Youth Forum which will bring over 1,000 young people to Kigali.

And that brings me back to the question why should the Commonwealth put road safety on its agenda? Over 60% of the Commonwealth’s combined population is under 30. We know that children and young people face the gravest risk of road traffic injury. So I think perhaps we should put the question in another way. How can road safety not be on the agenda of the Commonwealth?

Download the full report here: https://issuu.com/commonwealthrsi/docs/commonwealth_expert_panel_report