17 June 2022, Bridgetown, Barbados – In the framework of the 10th IRF Caribbean Regional Congress “A Roadmap to a Safe and Resilient Road System” between 7 and 10 June 2022, UNITAR in collaboration with the International Road Federation and AB InBev offered a training workshop on "Management Practices for Safer Roads", and an executive session on “Diagnosing and Treating Road Injury Risk”. The Congress gathered more than 250 professionals from 32 countries, including 11 Ministers of Transport, and provided useful tools and learnings to regional challenges of road safety and climate-resilient infrastructure.

During the training workshop, participants were introduced to the “Management Practices for Safer Roads Toolkit” and to lessons learned from pilot cities in Dominican Republic and Brazil where the Toolkit has been implemented. By using the Toolkit’s management methodology, both countries have successfully achieved a reduction in road traffic fatalities and injuries by gathering and analysing accidents data, by identifying crash “hot spots” and by improving the highest-risk roads with the adoption of corrective measures. UNITAR also opened a call for expressions of interest in technical assistance for the implementation of the Toolkit’s methodology in cities.

For the executive session, UNITAR explored more-in-depth the Toolkit’s methodology and its main objective of enhancing resilience and safety for all road users. UNITAR also presented its “Social norms aimed at improving road safety: Designing effective behavior change campaigns” e-learning course, which gathers relevant data and studies proving that changing road users’ behavior on the risk factors (speed, drink–driving, failure to use helmets, seat belts and child restraints properly or at all) is essential to improve road safety.