26/07/2018

The 4th International Child Road Safety Forum will be held in Colombia

Aiming to continue developing policies and programs aimed at strengthening road safety in Colombia, especially among children, Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez, through its President María Fernanda Rodríguez, Guillermo Cardona, Minister of Transport and Alejandro Maya, Director of the National Road Safety Agency (ANSV), signed an agreement to host the next FISEVI in Colombia in 2020.

Although “FISEVI Colombia 2020 Commitment” was reached on July 25 within the context of the Road Safety National Challenge closing ceremony, the arrangements started more than a month ago, when Maya attended FIEVI 2018 in Argentina on June 2018. “FISEVI is an important platform for all Latin American countries to get to know currently effective road safety actions and activities,” stated the ANSV Director at FISEVI 2018.

“I believe these platforms allow progress to be made in public policies related to child road safety in Latin America. One child victim in a traffic accident is too many and that is why all authorities should work with Latin American countries to effectively achieve the objective we once set: Zero victims in traffic accidents,” Maya stated.

After signing the agreement, Rodríguez thanked the minister and the Director of ANSV Colombia for his commitment to road safety. “From the beginning of the forum, held every two years in different countries, we have only visited countries committed to the topic and willing to work jointly to improve child road safety,” she pointed out.

The President of Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez stated that “the forum gathers between 50-60 international experts on Road Safety to exchange information on what works and what doesn't.” “It is like a ‘university post graduate course’ with parallel talks on different topics: Traffic, Education, Health, Urbanism, etcetera. Where the experts work with civil society organizations and governments to improve Road Safety,” she said.

“We are convinced that a child should never die or result permanently injured due to mobility issues.” The Fundación's team is at your disposal to work together, accelerate the accomplishment of the objectives set in order to get to FISEVI 2020, not with promises, but with results and new challenges,” expressed Rodríguez.

In 2020 the UN Decade of Action 2010-2020 will come to an end. “That is to say that everything implemented in Latin America regarding road safety will be assessed in Colombia. A lot of people will be interested in participating and taking part, and they will be observing us. The better we do our job, the more international collaboration and national commitment we will obtain,” she concluded.