Global Programmes

Road crash death and injury undermines the universal human right of the "right to life". Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights states that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person". Technically, it is the kinetic energy of movement that provides the energy to kill a human being in a crash - and this energy is the same in every country, and does not mind about your nationality, age or social status. As such, we seek to find and develop common global approaches to tackle the road safety crisis, and this search has developed into one of our key strategic directions.

We are currently involved with, and helped create, a number of multi-country projects and global initiatives. These have the common goal of creating and delivering on-the-ground interventions that yield visible results, put in place sustainable road safety capacity, and develop new, globally applicable methodologies and solutions.

Our first step in this direction started in 2005 with our contribution to the development of the Global Good Practice Manuals on Helmets, Seat Belts and Child Restraints, Drinking and Driving, Speed Management and Data Systems. In that same year, we started the implementation of the 5 year Global Road Safety Initiative. Funded by seven global companies, this initiative was aimed at taking the good practice manuals into action on the ground in three geographical regions, and has since proven enormously successful. The Initiative has continued into a second five year phase with an expanded geographical range and a focus on innovative road safety methodologies, one of which is the city-based Proactive Partnership Strategy. This methodology is based on a business developed cultural change approach that aims to help cities improve their quality of life by reducing road crash death and injury in their cities.

In 2009, we were selected to be one of the partners in the Save Our Lives project, an EU funded eight country project in the Central European space. During the same year, Bloomberg Philanthropies selected us to join the World Health Organisation, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the World Bank, The Association for Safe International Travel, and EMBARQ, in a five year project, focusing on the implementation of the Good Practice Manuals in 10 countries.

In 2011, we have started a 3 year, EU funded regional project targeting 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Helping to build a consistent global approach to managing work related road safety, we led a United Nations Road Safety Collaboration working group that developed the Global Road Safety Commitment. This is a one page document aimed at starting organisations on the road to zero road crash death and injury.

For the individual, we have developed the Individual Commitment Card programme.This programme is aimed at helping any individual make a contribution towards the Decade of Action by making a commitment to ten key road safety behaviours. While we have particularly developed this commitment for the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, it is however applicable for any individual.