It is my great pleasure to welcome you to UN House, and to the official launch of the Viet Nam Project 2000 Road Safety Partnership. I am very happy to see you all.
This is a first-of-its-kind national initiative, led by WHO as the UN’s lead agency on road safety, and the AIP Foundation – bringing together development partners, academia, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders, with ‘start up’ funding generously provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the FIA Foundation.
But as happy as I am to see you all today, we are of course here for a very sad reason: and that is, that every year, 2000 children and young people die on Viet Nam’s roads.
That is five children and young people, on average, whose lives are lost every single day. Five families whose lives are changed irrevocably, every day. Five communities who are devastated by the loss of one of their youngest members, every day.
As a mother of two young children, it honestly breaks my heart to think about the fact that somewhere around Viet Nam, sometime today, five other mums and dads will face the shock, the grief, the trauma – of learning that their little ones’ future has been snatched away forever.
This situation is all the more awful for the fact that it is almost entirely preventable.
And that is why we are here: to launch this Partnership which, through our individual and collective actions, aims to end this tragedy, by working towards reducing the number of children and young people who die on Viet Nam’s roads every year from 2000, to zero. Zero preventable deaths. Zero families shattered by road crashes. Zero children killed on the way to school.
So our shared vision is clear: a Viet Nam where every child and every young person can travel safely on the roads.
At WHO we are very proud to stand alongside Greig and his team at the AIP Foundation, and all of you, in working towards this Vision.
The idea for this Partnership started with a conversation Greig and I had over lunch, 6 or so months ago. The idea we had – to bring together a coalition of likeminded and committed partners, with the goal of catalyzing concrete action – is grounded in a deep conviction that while the death toll caused by road traffic crashes is a solvable crisis, none of us can solve it alone.
So we are truly thrilled that as we launch this Partnership today, we already have 17 partner and supporter organizations on board – with, we hope, more to follow. Thank you all for your engagement and commitment.
I also want to take a moment to thank representatives from the Government of Viet Nam who are here today – Mr Thanh from the National Traffic Safety Committee, along with colleagues from Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Education & Training.
Thank you for your presence today, but more importantly, your dedication over many years to improving road safety in Viet Nam.
Thanks to the Government’s leadership and commitment, as we launch our Partnership today, we are building on an incredibly strong foundation.
Viet Nam has made remarkable progress in road safety over the last couple of decades. Overall road deaths have dropped by 40% in the last ten years alone.
The 2007 national helmet law has saved tens of thousands of lives and prevented countless injuries – a powerful example of what strong policy, enforcement and public awareness can achieve.
Tough drink-driving regulations and continuous improvements in road infrastructure have also contributed to much safer roads.
The new Road Traffic Order and Safety Law and the Law on Roads, both set to take effect next year, will require children in vehicles to be secured with child restraints and sit in the rear of vehicles. Enforced well, this will also protect many young lives.
WHO is proud to have supported these efforts.
But we need to do more – which is what this Partnership is all about: supporting the Government of Viet Nam’s efforts to further reduce preventable deaths and injuries on the roads, in line with the National Road Safety Strategy to 2030 and Vision to 2045.
We aim to do this through:
- Creating a platform for catalyzing concrete actions and projects which contribute to reduction in road traffic fatalities (especially among children and young people),
- Fostering multi-sectoral engagement including from the private sector,
- Promoting evidence-based policymaking grounded in the safe system approach, and
- Elevating youth voices in designing safer mobility solutions.
And we will use these approaches to focus, at least initially, on three proven interventions:
- Ensuring every child wears a certified helmet, and wears it correctly
- Strengthening enforcement and public awareness of child restraint systems and seatbelt use in cars
- Creating safer school zones and road environments.
I want to conclude with one final reflection on what this Partnership is all about. And that is – it is fundamentally about people.
It is about all of the people in this room today, who are here because we are committed to doing all we can to protect another group of people – Viet Nam’s youngest and most vulnerable road users, through building a future where mobility means safety, opportunity and well-being for all.
Let me close by thanking each of you again for being here today. I am very excited about our work ahead.
Thank you / Xin cảm ơn!