Saul Billingsley, Deputy Director of the FIA Foundation, joins Holger Dalkman, Director of EMBARQ, to announce their road safety Voluntary Commitment at Rio+20 (© Mariana Gil, EMBARQ)

Saul Billingsley speaks at Rio+20 side meeting hosted by the European Union and SLoCaT (© Mariana Gil, EMBARQ)

Several organisations came together to launch Rio+20 sustainable transport commitments (© Mariana Gil, EMBARQ)

The Road Safety Fund has joined leading road safety and sustainable transport organisations to commit to action at Rio+20.

Twelve organisations and initiatives have united under the banner of the Zenani Mandela campaign to make a Rio+20 Voluntary Commitment for ‘Protecting Children from traffic injuries and improving their urban environment’. The action plan is supported by Amend, AIP Foundation, Costa Rica Automobile Club, Dutch Cycling Embassy, EMBARQ, the FIA Foundation, the International Road Assessment Programme, Make Roads Safe, the Road Safety Fund, Safe Kids Worldwide, the Share the Road initiative, and the UN Environment Programme. These organisations commit to advocating for safe, sustainable mobility in the run up to the UN Global Road Safety Week in May 2013, and each makes specific pledges for delivering demonstration projects, research or financing over the next 12 months which will improve safety and the urban environment for children and young people, with a particular emphasis on pedestrians and cyclists.

As the draft communique for the Rio summit was finalised, with sustainable transport and road safety included for the first time in the global sustainable development framework, 17 sustainable transport commitments were unveiled in Rio. The UN is encouraging governments, international institutions, NGOs and other actors to make voluntary commitments in parallel to the official Rio Agreement. Speaking at a side event at Rio+20 organised by the European Union and the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), Saul Billingsley, the director of the Road Safety Fund, outlined the Zenani Campaign voluntary commitment on behalf of the twelve partners.

Other organisations making their own sustainable transport commitments at Rio+20 included UN Habitat; the International Road Assessment Programme; the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and EMBARQ. The multilateral development banks were also set to make a major announcement on sustainable transport.

“Rio+20 is potentially a breakthrough moment for sustainable transport and road safety”, said Saul Billingsley. “For the first time at a global sustainable development summit safe and sustainable transport has been recognised and included in the framework for action. This provides a platform on which to build, not least in terms of ensuring that road safety and sustainable transport are included in negotiations on the replacement for the Millennium Development Goals post-2015, and in our efforts to encourage companies and philanthropies to invest in road injury prevention in support of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. Our road safety commitment for children, under the banner of the Zenani Mandela campaign, seeks to build practical delivery to complement the words in the Rio+20 communique and to showcase the solutions that are available now to save lives and prevent injuries. We would welcome additional corporate and philanthropic partners to deliver these programmes”.