Boost road safety for people, the planet and prosperity

Global leaders must take urgent, concerted action to end road carnage

AFP_SHUTTERSTOCK_AL_MAJALLA

Boost road safety for people, the planet and prosperity

Al Majalla - London

last update on 20 Feb 2025

This article was jointly authored by ministers and officials who attended the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which concluded on 20 February in Morocco. The full list of signatories can be found at the end of the joint op-ed.

World leaders met for the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to recognise road safety as an urgent public health and development priority and advance actions to halve road deaths by 2030.

If you had to guess the leading cause of death for children and young people globally, what would you say? Malaria? Pneumonia? Suicide? They’re all up there, but no, it’s road crashes.

Cars have been around for over 120 years, and we know how to prevent these tragedies. Yet road crashes still claim more than two lives every minute and nearly 1.2 million lives every year. If a virus caused these deaths, it would be called a pandemic, and the world would scramble to develop vaccines to prevent them. And yet, reducing road deaths has long been overlooked, misunderstood, and underfunded.

People will always make mistakes on the roads, but we have proven solutions that ensure our transport systems can absorb these errors in a way that significantly reduces the risk of death.

Ambitious yet achievable target

As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, the world has set an ambitious target of halving road deaths worldwide by 2030.

Safe roads power economies. Road deaths can cost countries around 3 to 5% of GDP. Ensuring more people can move safely to their jobs and schools drives development.

Just ten countries—including some hard-hit low and middle-income countries—managed to reduce road deaths by more than 50% in a decade, and more than 30 countries are close behind. This shows that the target can be met, but it is nowhere near enough. We need urgent action.

The key to meeting this goal is to design and build our transport systems for people—not for motor vehicles—and to make safety paramount in all decisions and actions. This is especially important for the most vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle riders, who are often left dangerously exposed.

Advancing road safety is crucial in itself but is also key to sustainable development. The world is going through an unprecedented wave of motorisation. More than a billion vehicles are on the roads. This is unsustainable, so we must focus on moving people, not cars, motorbikes and trucks.

Transport accounts for one-quarter of global carbon emissions and fuels congestion in our cities. Yet when mobility is made safe and accessible, people choose greener options such as public transport, walking, and cycling. Designing cities around sustainable transport—with cycling lanes, pedestrian zones, and accessible public transport —also strengthens communities by making spaces safer and more liveable while improving access to adequate housing and basic services for all.

YASSER AL - ZAYYAT / AFP — An aerial picture shows heavy traffic on two main highways in Kuwait City on March 27, 2023.

Safe roads power economies. Road deaths can cost countries around 3 to 5% of GDP, and ensuring more people can move safely to their jobs, schools, and vital services drives development. Safe, accessible and affordable transport also breaks down barriers to jobs, schools and opportunities for disadvantaged groups. This helps ensure everyone can reach their potential.

The same holds true for gender equality, and in some countries, up to 80% of women report suffering harassment on public transport, so we must make transport safe for women and girls.

Everyone's business

Road safety is everyone's business, and to succeed, we need a range of sectors to be involved. Urban planners and engineers must ensure safety is built into infrastructure. Academia and civil society can generate evidence. The media can dig deeper into what works, what doesn't and why.

The private sector has tremendous influence. Businesses can contribute to safe and sustainable mobility by applying proven principles and practices throughout their value chains. They must only sell vehicles that meet United Nations safety standards.

Yet the role of government is paramount. Governments must provide strategic and well-coordinated approaches, strong policy and legal frameworks that enforce safety standards and safe behaviours, and sufficient funding. Law enforcement and education are also key.

Designing cities around sustainable transport—with cycling lanes, pedestrian zones, and accessible public transport —also strengthens communities by making spaces safe

This vision is right at the heart of the Global Plan for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which offers a blueprint for governments to reduce road deaths.

This week, world leaders met for the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech, where they assessed progress, shared knowledge, and advanced actions to halve road deaths by 2030. At the summit's conclusion, they adopted the Marrakech Declaration, which recognises road safety as an urgent public health and development priority, and that our efforts must be guided by the principles of equity, accessibility, and sustainability.

The Declaration calls on leaders to step up efforts to action the Global Plan for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. We need a step change in political will, a sense of urgency, evidenced-based strategies that are costed and implemented, strong coordination and adequate financing.

Road safety is a crisis that has gone on far too long. No road deaths are necessary or acceptable. Yet, it is also much more than that. Safe and sustainable mobility can power a better future for us all.

Signatories:

H.E. Mr. Abdessamad Kayouh, Minister of Transport and Logistics of the Kingdom of Morocco, Host of the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO
Jean Todt, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety
Achim Steiner, Administrator of UNDP
Rabab Fatima, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States
Inger Andersen, UN Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director of UNEP
Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat
Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Li Junhua. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)
Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of UNOPS
Tatiana Molcean, UN Under-Secretary-General/Executive Secretary of UNECE
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of UNESCAP
Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of UNECA
Rola Dashti, Executive Secretary of ESCWA
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of UNECLAC
Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security (UNDSS)
Felipe Paullier, Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs