World Bank GRSF Wins Three Prince Michael Awards 2020 for Effective Delivery of Global Road Safety

Washington: The World Bank and the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) received an unprecedented three Prince Michael International Awards for Road Safety in 2020. The awards recognize GRSF’s effective delivery of global road safety solutions. The Prince Michael International Awards for Road Safety began in 1987, and are regarded as the ‘academy awards’ of global road safety. Each year, major successes in road safety around the world are identified in five categories: Road Safety Management; Safer Roads; Safer Vehicles; Safer Road Users; and Post-Crash Response.

This year, the work of the World Bank and GRSF received the following awards:

The first award recognizes the GRSF-funded project focused on the improvement of road safety in Western Nepal’s perilous mountain roads. In this project, GRSF, with funding from UK Aid, supported the installation of 73,000 meters of crash barriers along some of the country’s deadliest roads. According to GRSF projected estimates, the new barriers may save up to 3,456 lives over the next 20 years, in addition to preventing countless injuries. The approach and technical specifications for road safety barriers, along with the experience and results of this World Bank-GRSF project, also helped inform other infrastructure projects. Importantly, the success of the project encouraged the Government of Nepal to develop and start the implementation of a broader Road Safety Strategy.

The second award recognizes the leadership and systemic strategic and policy changes implemented by the World Bank (including GRSF) to improve road safety. The World Bank’s commitment to global road safety has steadily increased through its leadership and a series of strategic and systemic policy changes including the Good Practice Note for Road Safety guiding delivery, the Road Safety Screening and Appraisal Tool, Transport Global Practice requirements for road safety, and road safety training. Funding from UK Aid, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and CITA is also acknowledged for programs which have helped promote and shape road safety in World Bank projects. Many thousands of lives are already being saved in Bank projects thanks to these policies.

The third award acknowledges the outstanding achievements in the development of the Africa Road Safety Observatory and the Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory. These observatories deliver many valuable outcomes beyond enhanced road cash data: a deeper regional collaboration across many countries, an enhanced shared regional database of agreed recorded details, collaboration, cross-country learnings as well as learning from experts, a competitive yet collaborative benchmarking of country performances, and improved data for stronger commitments to road safety, as well as global and regional monitoring of the problem and performance.

The Road Safety Observatories were made possible by a broad partnership of committed institutions, including the World Bank, Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP), Africa Union, Asian Development Bank, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, International Transport Forum, Africa Development Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), GRSF, and many others. Donors included UK Aid, Total Foundation, and the Quality Infrastructure Invesment Partnership (between the World Bank and the Government of Japan), as well as funding from partner organizations. This Award also belongs to the countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific that have been working on the development of these observatories, and that are committed to improving road safety data and road safety policies to save lives.

“For many years I have been impressed by the Bank’s commitment to global road safety which has steadily increased through its leadership and a series of strategic and systemic policy changes culminating in the new Transport Global Practice guide. I am delighted to recognize this commitment and outstanding achievements with my road safety awards,” said HRH Prince Michael of Kent.

“These awards confirm the importance of bringing together funding from our donors, such as UK Aid, Bloomberg Philanthropies, CITA, Total Foundation, the World Bank, the Quality Infrastructure Investment Partnership, many global delivery partners, country road safety leaders, and practical expertise from GRSF to deliver sustainable safety improvements in developing countries,” said Dr. Soames Job, Head of GRSF and Global Lead for Road Safety, World Bank.

The World Bank and GRSF have previously won three Prince Michael International Awards for Road Safety. In 2004 for the work with the World Report on Road Safety in partnership with the World Health Organization; in 2008 for the efforts developing the Ibero-American Road Safety Observatory (OISEVI) in collaboration with many partners; and most recently for GRSF’s contributions to road safety in 2017.