5 June 2024 – A regional workshop on Improving Road Traffic Data Systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 13–16 May 2024. WHO organized the event in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Ministerial Traffic Safety Committee (MTSC).
The workshop aimed to support countries to coordinate effectively among relevant sectors at the national level to strengthen their road traffic data systems, including outcome (fatal and nonfatal injuries) and process indicators. Ultimately, this will improve the monitoring of progress during the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030. Progress is reported annually in WHO’s series of global status reports on road safety.
Taking part in the workshop were multisectoral representatives from 11 countries of the Region that are already, or have expressed interest in, working on their road traffic data systems. Participants also included representatives of key regional and global partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Gulf Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Gulf CDC).
WHO road safety and data experts – from global, regional and country levels – led the workshop. Plenary and working group sessions looked at various aspects of road safety, including data issues.
Recent global and regional developments in road safety were presented, such as the:
endorsement of the Strategic action framework to strengthen road safety systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region by the 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean;
launch of the “Global status report on road safety 2023” (GSRRS 2023);
lead agencies of the Global Network of Heads of National Road Safety Agencies; and
15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and other upcoming global events.
Talks were also given on road traffic data systems on fatal and nonfatal injuries and on the situation of death and causes of death registration systems in the Region, as well as on business process mapping and linkage of road traffic data sources.
Another issue covered was the monitoring of road safety performance, in line with the third strategic objective of the regional strategic action framework. Country representatives did a deep dive into country-specific findings of GSRRS 2023, as well as best practices and guidance on performance indicators. This effort was in part to identify a national monitoring plan for measuring such indicators.
The need to develop research agendas around road safety was also discussed. So too was the need to identify related research priorities and interlinkages between death and cause of death within civil registration and vital statistics systems. An overview was given of WHO’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics programme and the role of the International Classification of Diseases in improving data quality. This also looked at common issues in cause-of-death data quality and methods and at WHO tools to assess data quality and accurately register cause of death. The workshop also had a marketplace in which to show and discuss posters on road traffic data systems-related experiences from each country.
The workshop’s inaugural session was moderated by Eng. Ajdal Mohammed Al-Sulami, General Secretary of MTSC. Opening remarks were given by Dr Mohammed Abdullah Al-Qasim, Member of the Executive Committee and Head of the Data Committee of MTSC; and Eng. Badr Abdullah Al-Dulami, Vice Minister of Transport and Member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Traffic Safety Engineering Committee of MTSC. Dr Maha El-Adawy, Director of Healthier Populations at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, also made opening remarks.
The workshop was a collaborative initiative by WHO’s Healthier Populations and Science, Information and Dissemination departments to improve road traffic data systems. Both WHO headquarters and Regional Office teams are engaged in this ongoing joint effort.
Related links
Global status report on road safety 2023
Strategic action framework to strengthen road safety systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Road traffic deaths: a toolkit for strengthening data systems
WHO civil registration and vital statistics strategic implementation plan 2021–2025
