MINISTER of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw will lead a delegation to the United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNRSF) High-Level Meeting on Improving Global Road Safety from June 30 to July 1, 2022 at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Member states will convene the high-level meeting on road safety under the theme, ‘The 2030 horizon for road safety: Securing a decade of action and delivery’.

The UN high-level meeting and first pledging conference will provide an opportunity to improve Jamaica’s presence on the global stage and identify collaborative opportunities with the UNRSF and other donor agencies. Countries are able to reaffirm their commitment to the UN General Assembly Resolution, ‘Improving global road safety’, proclaiming the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

Minister Shaw will deliver Jamaica’s plenary statement in support of the Second Decade of Action at the General Assembly Hall at the high-level meeting. Jamaica is scheduled to co-host the pledging event, serving as an advocate for the replenishment of the UNSRF which targets developing countries’ road safety projects.

The transport minister will also give the keynote address at panel one of the multi-stakeholder panels, with a focus on ‘Mainstreaming road safety into sustainable development: political will and whole-of-government approach’.

According to the transport ministry, Shaw, who expects to be fully engaged in the high-level meeting, said he is looking forward to participating to treating with the plague of road crashes and fatalities, and welcomes the efforts of the UNRSF.

The UNRSF was established in 2018 to provide funding to developing countries in support of road safety projects which are geared towards improving their road safety architecture in accordance with the safe systems approach.