West African Road Safety Organization holds first General Assembly

In response to the growing incidence of traffic crashes in the western Africa, the West African Road Safety Organization (WARSO) held its first General Assembly in Bamako, Mali on November 3 and 4. GRSP was invited to participate in this meeting.

To tackle these challenges, WARSO:

• Resolved to assist in creation of a National Policy and Strategic Document for member states with a workshop to be held in the first quarter of 2009. The workshop will be supported by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP).

• Reviewed and adopted the Regional Vehicle Administration Information System (RVAIS) program proposed by the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS). It also accepted a proposal for a meeting of experts scheduled for the first quarter of 2009.

• Set up a technical committee to tackle the issue of sustainable and stable funding for road-safety activities, WARSO programmes and for standardization of the RTC data (also with support from GRSP).

• Agreed to propose an ECOWAS Road Safety Week to heads of governments and to conduct campaigns on helmet use, pedestrian safety, and safety-belt compliance.

WARSO also agreed to hold an executive committee meeting in April in Benin and the next general meeting in Conakry, Guinea in September 2009.