The image of a Cairo road gridlocked for all eternity isn’t a far-fetched one. But in a city where rush hour starts at seven in the morning and sometimes lasts until midnight, worse things happen when you have the following fatal formula: pedestrians and drivers equally ignorant of the ABCs of road protocol, plus bad road conditions. Despite carrying one message in other parts of the world, traffic lights, indicators, zebra crossings, footbridges and road signs clearly mean different things to different people in Egypt and, if it’s any consolation, in most developing countries.

The statistics are staggering. According to Adrian Baron, country manager of International Event Partners (IEP), the company organizing the first international forum on road safety and traffic management (February 8 and 9), by 2020, road traffic injuries will rise from the ninth to the second leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost in developing countries (which account for 85 percent of the world’s annual road fatalities); and the third leading cause in the industrialized world. Road injuries are an escalating health, social and economic burden in countries with the least resources, costing $65 billion each year in the developing world.

In Egypt, there are 6,000 road fatalities and 26,000 injuries annually, according to The World Health Organization. But the human suffering doesn’t end there. For every crash victim, family members, friends and communities must cope with the physical, psychological and economic consequences of a death, injury or disability.

Although many would be skeptical that the upcoming forum will make a difference, resigned that the ‘organized chaos’ of Egypt’s roads is a fait accompli, IEP in cooperation with the Interior Ministry and the newly formed Safe Road Society of Egypt believe otherwise. Under the auspices of First Lady Susan Mubarak, the conference, titled “Road Safety: A Shared Responsibility,” is intended to kick-start a holistic campaign to improve the situation in Egypt, which will be used as a case study for how developing countries may apply global ‘best practices’ and success stories to their own situations.

The objective of this conference, according to Raymond Cahill, chairman of IEP, is to initiate action towards long-lasting solutions for road safety. It brings together eight leading international experts including such high-profile figures as Joseph Schleicher, chairman of the Global Road Safety Partnership and professor Murray Mackay, director of the European Transport Safety Council. Locally, Habib El-Adly, minister of interior; Essam Sharaf, minister of transport; Mohammed Awad Taggedin, minister of health; and Ahmed El-Maghrabi, minister of tourism, will attend, as well as representatives of NGOs like Marwan Hammad, chairman of the Safe Road Society of Egypt.

Baron points out that incorporating the efforts of the private sector is an important part of the process. “In South Africa,” he says, “the traffic situation has improved drastically since the private sector joined hands with the government.” Sponsors include British Gas, British Petroleum, Shell Egypt, ExxonMobil and Caltex from the oil sector. DaimlerChrysler, Johnson & Johnson as well as companies from the tourism sector will also participate, all representing their own initiatives for accident-free roads.

ExxonMobil’s “Nobody Gets Hurt” initiative, for instance, involves the implementation of vehicle safety management systems to safeguard their delivery fleet. Their program is engaged in recruiting and training highly qualified professional drivers who undergo regular defensive driving and fatigue awareness training in addition to operating and maintaining world-class trucks and trailers that are designed in keeping with stringent safety requirements using state-of-the-art technology.

Shell is in the process of hammering out a partnership with the Arab Road Association to support a Driver’s Training Center in Cairo to educate motorists on appropriate driving habits. As a member of the Safe Road Society, the company will also help finance a pedestrian tunnel on the Maadi Corniche.

Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide Safe Fleet program provides incentives to drivers with a four-year accident-free record by letting them own the cars with which they work.

On the education front, Al-Karma Edutainment, which produces USAID-funded A’lam Simsim (the local version of Sesame Street) targeting preschool-age children, will participate by giving a presentation highlighting these educational goals in the show’s new season, namely road safety, traffic regulations and safety at home. Dr. Kawsar Kouchok, from the Ministry of Education’s center for curriculum and instructional materials development, will also speak about how the ministry plans to incorporate road-safety awareness material into the syllabus and the need to educate teachers as well as students.

“The forum will culminate with recommendations for setting up a national road safety strategy and plan of action, emphasizing the multi-sectored and interdisciplinary dimensions of such a strategy, which must engage all stakeholders from the government, the private sector, NGOs, the media and the general public,” concludes Baron. et