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Championing safe, cleanand affordabletransport
 
by Tony Bliss, Lead Road SafetySpecialist, Sustainable Development Network, World  Bank Group
T
he World Bank Group has champi-
oned road safety in low- and mid-
dle-income countries for more than
three decades. Unprecedented growth
in motorization, and the adverse effects
of road crashes are now bringing roadsafety to the forefront of the develop-
ment agenda. As part of the World Bank 
Group’s transport business strategy for
2008 – 2012,
Safe, Clean and Affordable
Transport for Development 
, road safety
is becoming mainstreamed in transport
investment operations.
 
The stakes are high
Development aims to reduce pov-erty and promote higher living standards
for all, with an emphasis on improved
access to infrastructure services, health
and education, and on people’s ability
to participate in the economy and socie-ty. This inclusiveness is central to coun-
try development strategies, which aim to
improve aggregate economic perform-ance, and address the priorities of edu-
cation and health, as well as social and
stakeholder participation. Poverty can
be understood as the inability to achieve
basic prescribed standards in these pri-
orities. In this regard, the sheer scale of the historical and projected health lossesfrom road crashes alone puts road safetyon the development agenda.By 2050, the world’s populationis expected to reach nine billion people,from a current population of six billion,with almost all this increase in low- and
middle-income countries and predominant-
ly urban areas. Unless new measures aretaken, higherrates of road traffic injuriesand death must be anticipated. Over the
Priority to high-riskcountries
In addition to country investment
operations, recent World Bank activi-ties include partnering with the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) to publish
the World Report on Road Traffic InjuryPrevention, supporting the Make Roads
Safe campaign of the Commission forGlobal Road Safety and their proposal
for a Decade of Action for Road Safety2010 – 2020, with a 50 % fatality reduc-tion target.
Among other World Bank activities
is the establishment of the Global Road
Safety Facility to fund global, regional and
country road safety capacity building ini-
tiatives, and guidelines to implement the
World Report recommendations through
the conduct of road safety management
first 30 years of this century, for example,it is estimated that more cars will be pro-
duced in the world than during the firsthundred years of motorization.
What’s more, road traffic inju-
ries will be the second biggest cause of healthy life years lost for men by 2030,
and the biggest cause of healthy life years
lost for children aged between 5 and 14,from 2015 to 2030. These sombre statis-
tics underpin the priority the World Bank 
Group is now giving to improving roadsafety performance in low- and middle-income countries.
 
“ Improved road safety management is the highestpriority in low- and middle-income countries.”
 ISO
 
Focus
October 2009
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