From 17 - 20 February 2025, the Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) participated at the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Conference marked the halfway point of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021 - 2030, and provided an opportunity for Governments, multilateral partners, nongovernmental organizations and other key stakeholders to meet and discuss challenges and opportunities to strengthen action in addressing road crash deaths and serious injuries through to 2030.

Director of ADB’s Transport Sector Office James Leather, Senior Transport Specialist and Road Safety Lead for ADB Priti Gautam, and APRSO Chair and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport of Nepal Sushil Dhakal, were actively engaged through a range of plenary and parallel sessions and meetings throughout the program.

These included direct contribution to the following sessions:

• ‘10 Steps to 2030 for Safer Road Infrastructure’ side event with the International Road Federation, International Road Assessment Programme and other partners
• ‘From commitment to accountability’ NGO symposium with the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety
• ‘Challenging 2030 – Achieving our global road safety mission’ side event with the FIA and FIA Foundation
• ‘Safer Road Infrastructure Saving Lives’ parallel session
• ‘Leveraging the Impact of Regional Observatories and Data for Decision-Making’ parallel session

In addition, ADB joined the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) Road Safety Working Group, which highlighted the need for strengthened collaboration to address financing shortfalls that are hindering road safety progress in low- and middle-income countries. A joint press release was issued, which highlighted that MDBs have worked with member countries to mobilize more than US$6 billion in road safety financing between 2018 and 2024 resulting in significant reductions in road deaths (Find full details here).

Referencing the strengthened call for financing by the MDB Road Safety Working Group, Vice-President for Sectors and Themes for ADB Fatima Yasmin outlined the ongoing commitment of ADB to safer roads.

“ADB is dedicated to making a tangible difference to save lives on roads across the region with an anticipated investment of US$2.3 billion available to our member countries over the next decade” she said.

Throughout the conference, APRSO and ADB were able to outline the strong impact of ongoing initiatives including:

• Ongoing provision of technical assistance to member countries
• Strong engagement with nongovernmental organizations through the APRSO Annual General Meetings and capacity-building programs
• Successful integration of road safety into infrastructure and related projects
• Targeted safe system maturity assessments and crash management reviews to inform enhanced planning to 2030
• Existing capacity-building modules on safer road infrastructure and other elements of the safe system
• The development and dissemination of road safety engineering manuals in collaboration with CAREC

In addition, the upcoming Road Safety Capacity Building Program webinar series was discussed, which will directly address and explore key issues relating to road safety data that were raised during the Conference (Find full detail here).

“The appetite for strengthened action from our member countries and partners at the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety was very clear,” said Ms. Gautam. “We look forward to building on the momentum of the Conference to continue to drive innovation, investment and commitment in road safety through Asia and the Pacific.”

APRSO is the regional forum on road safety data, policies and practices to ensure the protection of human life on the roads across Asia and the Pacific. Established in 2020, it comprises 27 member countries.