On 11 March 2025, the first session of the Road Safety Capacity Building Program webinar series was successfully delivered. The series, Data in Action: Using Global and Local Data Sources to Enhance Policy, Investment, and Implementation, is being co-delivered by the Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the CAREC program.  

More than 190 participants were actively engaged throughout the first session, which focused on the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023, and how it can be practically used to support road safety action.

Senior Transport Specialist and Road Safety Lead for ADB Priti Gautam was joined by a range of expert speakers, including APRSO Chair and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport of Nepal Sushil Dhakal, Director of Lӧsningar Dr. Jessica Truong, Director of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Professor Abdul Bachani and Technical Officer for WHO Fang Dan. 

In addition, Alternate Director for Japan Keiko Takahashi also joined the program to outline the continued support of the Government of Japan to road safety, the APRSO and the webinar series. 

The participants were actively engaged through the entire session, including a Q&A session which saw questions come from a range of stakeholders from across the region. During their presentations, Fang Dan and Professor Bachani explored how the Status Report can be used to influence policy, practice and investment. They also explored issues such as powered two-wheeler safety data, links to climate and sustainability and the emerging issues of e-scooters.

The next session of the series details are below:

Title: Complementary data and resources to inform road safety planning and implementation
Date: Tuesday 25 March 2025
Time: 15:00 GMT+8

Please go to the series website to register and see more information on speakers: https://www.aprso.org/event/road-safety-capacity-building-webinar-series-1

The grant fund for this series was received from the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and Pacific (JFPR) financed by the Government of Japan through ADB.