Stockholm, Sweden – 20 February 2020: H.E. Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy joined the world Ministers in charge of road safety attending the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety that took place from 18 to 20 February in Stockholm, Sweden under the theme “Achieving Global Goals 2030”.
The Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety is the world's largest gathering of road safety leaders where more than 1 300 delegates from over 150 countries and 88 Ministers met to discuss a wide range of topics on road safety. The Conference was an opportunity for delegates to share successes and lessons from implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, and define ways to accelerate action on proven strategies to save lives. The Conference also provided an opportunity to link road safety to other sustainability challenges.
In her message delivered during the opening session of the Conference, H.E. Commissioner emphasized on how worrying is the road insecurity in Africa. “The risk of dying as a result of a road traffic injury is highest in the African Region (26.6 per 100 000 population), than any other continent, while the Continent has only 3% of the world's vehicle fleet and road insecurity results loss of 3-5% of the African countries annual GDP”, she said.
The AU Commissioner also recalled the fast urban expansion in Africa that will result in accelerating motorization and the road safety challenge that will obviously grow without appropriate commitments and actions.
After inviting all friends of Africa to join the Continent’s efforts in the fulfillment of the legitimate ambitions of the African Union to save lives on our roads, she recalled the Road Safety’s five top ambitions of the African Union up to 2030.
“By tackling excessive speed alone, we can reduce CO2 emissions by between 7-12%, contributing to the climate change agenda”, Commissioner Abou-Zeid said, approaching the emergent issues in road safety.
H.E. Dr Abou Zeid also pointed out the responsibility of each one in road insecurity and emphasized that “Since human life is priceless, whether in Africa or elsewhere, the international cooperation should adopt and enforce common recognized standards for vehicle safety options.”
In the sidelines of the Global Conference, Commissioner Abou-Zeid co-chaired with the Honorable Minister of Lesotho Mr. Sello Keketso, Vice Chair of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee meeting on Transport, Transcontinental and Interregional Infrastructure, Energy and Tourism; the Vice President for Infrastructure of the World Bank; and the Director of Infrastructure and Private Sector of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the 2nd African Ministers Roundtable on Road Safety. During the roundtable attended by 21 African Ministers and more than 80 African senior Delegates, the African Union Commission shared with the participants, the trends of the Assessment of the African Road Safety action plan 2011-2020 and the top five actions for the upcoming Decade. The Ministers’ contributions will help the AUC to finalize the Plan of Action for the Decade 2020-2030. The Ministers committed to work towards the ratification of the African Road Safety Charter by each of their countries and to implement the concrete actions identified for the 2020-2030.
On the margins of the Conference, H.E. Commissioner also had various bilateral meetings with Mr. Jean Todt, the UN Secretary General Special Envoy for Road Safety; the Vice-President of the World Bank for Infrastructure Mr. Makhtar Diop and the European Union Commissioner for Transport, Ms. Adina Ioana Vălean.
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