Implementing the Recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention

This article, from a special issue on road safety, offers country-wide guidelines for the conduct of road safety management capacity reviews and for the related specification of lead agency reforms, investment strategies, and safety programs and projects. The author outlines the six recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury (World Bank, 2004): identify a lead agency in government to guide the national road safety effort; assess the problem, policies, and institutional settings relating to road traffic injury and the capacity for road traffic injury prevention in each country; prepare a national road safety strategy and plan of action; allocate financial and human resources to address the problem; implement specific actions to prevent road traffic crashes, minimize injuries and their consequences, and evaluate the impact of these actions; and support the development of national capacity and international cooperation. The author reminds readers that the guidelines provide detailed steps to address implementation priorities, project objectives, scale of investment, capacity strengthening priorities, results focus, project management arrangements, monitoring and evaluation, and detailed project design. One sidebar describes the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, a funding mechanism designed to support capacity building and to provide technical support for road safety at global, regional, and country levels, most notably in support of the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention. Readers are referred to the website for more information (www.worldbank.org/grsf).