STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CMC) — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it has entered into an agreement with the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) to improve the safety of roads in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

It said that the agreement was signed here earlier this week by iRAP’s Chief Executive Officer Rob McInerney and José Agustín Aguerre, manager of the Infrastructure and Energy Sector at the IDB, during the Innovation Workshop 2020: Infrastructure Innovation to Achieve the UN Targets by 2030.

The five-year agreement will facilitate collaboration between the IDB and iRAP to promote programmes and projects to significantly improve the safety of the roads in Latin America and the Caribbean where more than 110,000 people were killed and more than one million more seriously injured in road crashes in 2016, at a cost of US$224 billion or 4.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The partnership will focus on delivering a measurable reduction in road trauma in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean and contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Global Road Safety Performance Targets, particularly Target 3:

“By 2030, all  new roads achieve technical standards for all road users that take into account road safety, or meet a three star rating or better”; and Target 4: “By 2030, more than 75 per cent of travel on existing roads is on roads that meet technical standards for all road users that take into account road safety”.

The agreement will pave the way to implement Road Assessment Programmes (RAPs), following the iRAP methodology in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will help reduce the number of casualties and serious injuries caused by road accidents in the region.

The work of iRAP and the IDB will also focus on reviewing the methods utilised in evaluating previous investments in road safety infrastructure and providing guidance and recommendations for future investments, with an emphasis on methods for measuring the programme’s effectiveness.

Both institutions will also develop communication plans to raise public awareness and training to build capacity compliant with the three-star or better road safety standard.

“By achieving greater than 75 per cent of travel in Latin America and the Caribbean on three-star or better roads by 2030 the region could avoid up to 400,000 fatalities and serious injuries with a benefit of US$10 for every one dollar spent according to iRAP’s Business Case for Safer Roads .