Our mission is to finance and leverage further funding for high-impact projects based on established and internationally recognized best practices that increase road safety and minimize and eventually eliminate road crash trauma for all road users.
When the world truly comes together to solve a problem, amazing progress tends to follow.
Despite increasing political commitment towards global road safety, 1.3 million preventable deaths and 50 million injuries each year from road crashes form an unacceptable toll on our society that has largely remained unchanged over the last 20 years.
By coming together for safe mobility we can save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
What is needed to succeed is global resolve – and financing.
The United Nations Road Safety Fund was set up in 2018 to leverage the UN’s convening power and expertise to consolidate action towards achieving this.
The Fund was established as a UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund. It was officially launched in UNHQ New York on 12 April 2018, in the presence of the UN Deputy Secretary-General, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety and representatives from UN agencies, Member States, the private sector as well as other road safety stakeholders.
Safety First
Road deaths and injuries are preventable if we put safety first.
The UN Road Safety Fund is about saving lives and protecting the dreams and futures of our next generations.
We help low- and middle-income countries put in place the proven safety systems that safeguard their citizens and visitors from the risks of road travel.
We finance projects, which participating UN agencies implement alongside our partners, to build the practices, policies, regulations and capacity needed to put these systems in place.
The Fund is guided by the safe system principles embedded in its Global Framework Plan of Action for Road Safety, which provide an overall framework for interventions that – when done systematically by steps and at scale – will lead to a sharp reduction in road deaths and injuries.
By providing initial financing that builds capacity, trigger action and generate tangible results, we also unlock additional and long-term domestic and international financing for better road safety performance.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that road safety is a prerequisite to ensuring prosperous lives, promoting well-being and making roads inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Relying on the convening power and technical expertise of UN organizations, the Fund can strengthen collaborative efforts in helping improve road safety across the globe by:
- Gathering knowledge on different aspects of road safety in ongoing projects and initiatives
- Identifying gaps and linking priorities in order to achieve synergies and maximize impact
- Ensuring complementarity and avoiding duplication of global road safety initiatives
- Coordinating priorities for road safety efforts under a comprehensive framework
- Enhancing partnerships by bringing together all major stakeholders
- Leveraging financing support and pooling resources
Safe mobility is the biggest single “quick win” the world can achieve in reducing mortality and reaching the SDGs on health, cities, poverty, economic growth and more.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that road safety is a prerequisite to ensuring prosperous lives, promoting well-being and making roads inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
SDG 3.6 commits the global community to halve road traffic deaths by 2030 and SDG 11.2 calls for improved road safety though better access and use of sustainable mobility.
Moreover, by preventing millions of traffic-related injuries, health systems the world over will free up capacity to treat other important issues.
Millions of people can pursue productive lives, and in doing so, drive economic growth and build their communities.