The High Level Panel for Road Safety meets in Monaco to contribute to saving lives
Photo @Eric Mathon / Palais Princier
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) High Level Panel (HLP) for Road Safety met this Wednesday, 28 October in Monaco, at the headquarters of the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), in the presence of:
- HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco;
- Jean Todt, FIA President and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety;
- Michelle Yeoh, actor and producer, United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador and HLP Spokesperson;
- Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary of UNECE;
- Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;
- Jean-Charles Decaux, CEO of JCDecaux Global;
- Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics;
- David Lappartient, President of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI);
- Jorge Viegas, President of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM);
- Professor Gérard Saillant, sports doctor and President of the FIA Medical Commission;
- Balázs Weingartner, Ministerial Adviser and CEO of the Hungarian Motorsport Development Agency;
And participated in the meeting by video conference
- Tomas Eneroth, Swedish Ministry of Transport;
- Ángela María Orozco, Colombian Ministry of Transport;
- Hart Schafer, Vice President of the World Bank;
- Violeta Bulc, former European Commissioner for Transport;
- Maurice Lévy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Publicis Groupe;
- Luis Alberto Moreno, former President of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB);
And also opened the meeting with video messages:
- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General;
- Adina Vālean, European Commissioner for Transport;
The HLP is an FIA body bringing together 82 leading personalities from both the public and private sectors committed to road safety worldwide. Since its creation at the initiative of Jean Todt five years ago, the HLP has been working on improving road crashes statistics by contributing to the implementation of regional observatories in Africa and Asia, in partnership with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Transport Forum. It also supports the project to extend compulsory third-party insurance in several Latin American countries, in cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank. Finally, in association with the United Nations Environment Programme, the HLP is supporting the project to improve the conditions for importing used vehicles to the African continent.
In terms of financing, the HLP contributed to the project to create a United Nations Road Safety Fund, which was launched in April 2018 at a United Nations General Assembly in New York, in the presence and under the impetus of Jean Todt. At the same time, the HLP is seeking to identify innovative financing mechanisms and is currently working with the World Bank on fundraising protocols with private investors.
Held eight months after the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which took place in Stockholm in February, the meeting of 28 October in Monaco tackled in particular, the topic of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to mobility and road safety at the global level.
Discussions focused in particular on the need to further mobilise important partners such as car manufacturers, new players in electric mobility and insurance companies, in order to develop innovative and sustainable financing mechanisms, as well as on the urgency to strengthen prevention campaigns at local level.
The members of the HLP expressed their support for the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 August, in which the Member States committed to intensifying their efforts towards road safety over the next ten years.
HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco, the host of the event, stated:
"I am pleased to welcome Mr Jean Todt and the members of the FIA High Level Panel in Monaco, who like me, are committed to road safety. This year 2020, which has changed our daily lives and lifestyles, is a year of consolidation of the actions put in place by the FIA High Level Panel to fight against mortality on the roads, particularly in developing countries. We must unite our efforts in the service of this cause".
Michelle Yeoh, HLP Spokesperson, stated:
"2020 is a pivotal year for road safety: the new United Nations decade of action which includes ambitious bold initiatives has been launched. The time for action is now! FIA High-Level Panel is more committed and motivated to find and make progress in saving lives as observed at the meeting in Monaco. On behalf of President Jean Todt and HLP members, we thank HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco and ACM President Michel Boéri for hosting us."