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230Natural and human-made disastersTraffic deaths andinjuries remainlargely invisible tosociety and policymakers…Continuedinternationalcooperation andsupport are vital forthe reduction ofroad trafficaccidents, especiallyin developingcountriesworld.Engaging multiple stakeholders is particularly essentialin raising awareness and institutionalizing road safetyamong all road users, but especially among drivers of motorizedvehicles. Problems of coordination between differentgovernmental bodies at various levels and with private-sectoroperators of transport services pose a serious challenge forcities of developing countries, such as Seoul and MexicoCity. 82 In India, the National Urban Transport Policyproposed the creation of unified metropolitan transportauthorities in cities with at least 1 million inhabitants inorder to improve interagency cooperation on transportplanning. 83Improving traffic accident data collectionTraffic deaths and injuries remain largely invisible to societyand policy-makers because they are mostly scattered individualevents with low impact. 84 This is exacerbated by a lack ofcapacity to collect and compile traffic accident data,especially in developing countries. For instance, only 75countries report data on traffic mortality to the WHO. Wherenational-level data on traffic safety is incomplete, it limitsstrategic planning. Data on mortality is often available; butcasualty information is needed for a more comprehensiveanalysis of the impact of traffic accidents on livelihoods andeconomies. One way forward is to develop integratedrecording systems for police and hospitals. Where nationalorcity-level data is available, it is not always clear that thishas been used in policy development, suggesting a potentialopportunity for more evidence-based planning.More work is needed to help understand the fulleconomic costs of road crashes and to assess performance ofpolicies aimed at reducing traffic accident risk. Policy assessmentscould combine accident statistics with otherperformance indicators, especially those that can be targetedat improving vulnerable road user safety (such as the numberof pedestrian crossings installed, safety audits conducted andhazardous locations improved). 85Access to accident statistics is also a critical determinantof risk perception by road users, which, in turn, shapestheir behaviour. 86 Moreover, it is an important basis forpublicity and education campaigns designed to promote roadsafety.INTERNATIONALCOOPERATION IN ROADSAFETY PROMOTIONA major advancement in the road safety agenda over the lastdecade has been the growing number of United Nations,multilateral and bilateral donor organizations that havedeveloped road safety policies. 87 In October 2005, theUnited Nations endorsed a historic Resolution on ImprovingGlobal Road Safety in recognition of the limited capabilitiesof developing countries and countries with economies intransition to address road safety concerns and the need forinternational cooperation. 88 This led to a call for a GlobalRoad Safety Week, the first of which was held in April 2007in order to raise awareness on road safety concerns (see Box9.10). Furthermore, the WHO was mandated to coordinateroad safety issues across United Nations agencies and withother international partners through the United NationsRoad Safety Collaboration. 89 Since its establishment, thiscollaboration has been active in the areas of data collectionand research, technical support provision, advocacy andpolicy, and resource mobilization. 90 The collaboration hasalso established an Annual World Day of Remembrance forRoad Traffic Victims. 91Another influential international collaborative effort isthe Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) (see Box 9.11).The GRSP provides non-financial support for country andcity governments by improving global dissemination of roadsafety lessons and through a series of partnership-based roadsafety projects. The GRSP concentrates its resources amonga group of highly vulnerable countries where partnershipsfor road safety could be built. These are Brazil, Costa Rica,Ghana, Hungary, India (Bangalore), Poland, Romania, SouthAfrica, Thailand and Viet Nam. Initial work has been successfulin generating data and raising the profile of road safety,and pilot projects have shown ways of reducing risk.The work inspired by the GRSP shows that safety canbe gained in even the most vulnerable countries. Thepartnership approach has meant that non-governmental roadsafety projects do not compete with government schemes.Partners have been varied and the private sector has played arole. In South Africa and Thailand, multinational corporationshave been involved in road safety initiatives. In Ghanaand India, local business partners are more important.Community actors have also contributed in India and SouthAfrica – for example, in creating ‘safe zones’ as a public wayof generating demand for safer roads. In Poland, theTechnical University of Gdansk has become a partner withthe GRSP. The key to success in building awareness of, andsupport for, road safety has been partnerships to institutionalizeroad safety, an area of work that many other countriescould learn from. 92A number of other initiatives illustrate the attentionthat road traffic accidents are receiving internationally. TheCommission for Global Road Safety recently established bythe FIA Foundation 93 seeks to examine the framework for,and level of international cooperation on, global road safetyand to make policy recommendations. 94 The World Bank’sGlobal Road Safety Facility, launched in November 2005,intends to generate increased funding and technical assistancefor initiatives aimed at reducing deaths and injuries inlow- and middle-income countries.Continued international cooperation and support arevital for the reduction of road traffic accidents, especially indeveloping countries. In the 2007 Accra Declaration, Africanministers of transport and of health reaffirmed their commitmentto road safety and called upon the 2007 G8 Summit torecognize the need to improve road safety in Africa and toincorporate this agenda in development assistanceprogrammes. 95