Abu Dhabi will be hosting the 26th World Road Congress of PIARC on 6-10 October 2019. IRF is organising one foresight session on road safety partnerships and another one on gender in transport together with World Bank and the International Transport Forum.

The nearing end of the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) calls on all of us to step up our efforts. The upcoming ministerial meeting, which will be hosted by Sweden in February 2020 further offers the opportunity to renew our commitment by bringing to the table concrete action.

Building on the current momentum that sees road safety high on the global agenda, the foresight session “Building Partnerships for Better Road Safety” will explore the importance of inter-agency collaboration and of multi-stakeholders’ partnerships. Scheduled on 7th October in the morning, the session will provide concrete examples of the strength of partnerships and provide guidance on concrete steps to be undertaken to set up partnerships that deliver, especially in the case of LMICs. Multi-sector partnerships have great potential if efforts and resources are aligned with global goals.

The Foresight Session “Transport is not gender neutral: From increasing mobility to enhancing employment in the road sector” is scheduled on 7th October afternoon and organised under the leadership of the World Bank and in collaboration with the International Transport Forum. The session aims to showcase that transport and road infrastructure are not gender neutral and that the Road Sector has a key role designing and planning for roads that meaningfully address women’s mobility, which will be relevant for enhancing their accessibility to economic opportunities and services, whilst boosting development in general. 

In this context, this event adopts a holistic approach towards “gendered” road transport and infrastructure and discusses three key issues. From the employment side it will portray what can be achieved in the road sector by having (gender) diversity in the workplace. From the user perspective it will highlight how (rural) transport infrastructure can be developed in a way to maximize social and economic gains to society through user centered methods for data collection that will inform road transport and infrastructure that properly address gender considerations. Lastly, the event will also discuss whether it is possible to develop and implement a universal (bidding and implementation) standards to address social risks during construction stage of infrastructure projects.

Please contact IRF Secretariat for more info on these sessions at info[@]irfnet.ch and register for the Congress on http://www.aipcrabudhabi2019.org

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