In November 2017, the United Nations agreed on a set of 12 targets that directly relate to the Sustainable Development Goals: SDG target 3.6 seeks to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2020 and SDG target 11.2 aims to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport by 2030.
The set of 12 targets need indicators to ensure that progress is being made and that countries work towards implementing new initiatives, laws and changes to reduce road crahes.
Goals, Targets, More Targets and Indicators…What does it all mean?
In a nutshell, the current global efforts for road safety directly relate to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2015-2030 (which replaced the previous 15 years of goals, called the Millenium Development Goals), but also relate the Decade of Action 2011-2020.
All of these goals and efforts simply point to one principle; to reduce road traffic crashes globally by helping countries to put in place practices that are evidence-based and proven to work. In many parts of the world, especially low and middle-income countries (where most of the crashes and deaths happen, there is a lack of iniatitives proven to reduce crashes.
The goals refer to the Global Goals (also known as the Sustainable Development Agenda). These goals cover every aspect of development to make the world more sustainable and better equipped to impove the lives of billions of people. There are 17 global goals covering all elements of human life on the planet.
The targets are all the individual targets needed to improve life under each goal. For example, in health (Goal 3) there is a focus on mental health, maternal health, tobaccos cessation and each arenumbered individually. In total, there are 230 targets for the 17 goals. For the road safety field, target 3.6 refers directly to reducing road crashes by 50% by 2020. Taget 11.2 aims to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport by 2030 under goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The 12 targets published by WHO focus on even further targets to help decision makers, campaigners, practitioners and pretty much all people working on road safety to be more specific on road safety action. The indicators take this even further to illustrate what needs to be seen (indicated) for targets to be successful.
Why do we need global indicators?
The 12 targets agreed upon represent the specific goals to be achieved. There is a need to develop indicators that are aligned with these targets.
Indicators provide a means to monitor the extent of progress, which can stimulate changes to the focus and scale of national road safety activities in order to meet the targets.
Indicators will be used to assess progress and achievement of the targets. Countries that have managed to improve road safety have shown that doing so is aided by setting targets and reporting on progress towards those targets based on agreed indicators. This can serve to maintain momentum and action towards national road safety efforts in support of positive impacts.
Setting indicators for voluntary global performance targets relating to road safety risk factors and service delivery mechanisms can assist national and global road safety policy efforts. This paper proposes a selection of measurable indicators aligned with the 12 agreed global targets that may be used to monitor progress towards the achievement of these global targets.
While these indicators are still up for discussion, it can be seen that there are many indicators for countries to strive towards and implement. For young people and youth calling for change on road traffic crashes, once these indicators have been agreed, can directly lobby decision makers of their country to work towards the indicators.