Kajang, 9 April 2017 – The Fifth Global Meeting of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) for Road Safety and Road Victims was organized by the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, the Ministry of Transport Malaysia and hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO). The meeting was held from 3–6 April 2017 at the Sama-Sama Hotel, KLIA with attendance close to 150 road safety NGOs from over 70 countries.

The meeting was officiated by the Honourable Minister of Transport, Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai on 5 April 2017. Professor Dr Wong Shaw Voon, Director General, Malaysian Road Safety Research (MIROS); Mr Jean Todt, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Special Envoy for Road Safety; Dr Etienne Krug, Director, Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO; Mr Marc Shotten, Program Manager of Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), World Bank Group; and Mr Saul Billingsley, Executive Director, FIA Foundation offered valuable presentations that focused on the importance of joint efforts and partnership toward achieving concrete results for safer roads.

During the meeting, the Global Alliance held a session on the plans and opportunities for the NGOs to be involved toward the planning of the UN Road Safety Week 2017. The Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week, which will be held between 8–14 May 2017 worldwide is being coordinated by WHO, is encouraging people to take local action for the United Nation’s call for lower speed (#SlowDown). According to WHO’s partner for this occasion—20’s Plenty for Us—a Slow Down day is a street-based occasion to demonstrate for slower speed. Local NGOs, communities and even local authorities can obtain supporting resources to be involved in this worldwide push for slower speeds at https://www.unroadsafetyweek.org/en/get-involved.

On the final day of the meeting, the Global Alliance released the Malaysia Declaration, signed by all NGO attendees at the Global Meeting. The Declaration states the commitment of the road safety community to implement practical, evidence-based measures toward the improvement of road safety and post-crash response and calls upon all other stakeholders to partner meaningfully in these efforts. The Declaration is pushing toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (no. 3 & 11) to reduce the number of road deaths by 50% by 2020. The full text of Malaysia Declaration can be obtained from the Global Alliance website.