Poor road safety is a key sustainable development issue that affects each and every one of us, but is yet to be matched by global-scale funding mobilization. The UN Road Safety Fund aims to address this gap and has opened its first formal call for project proposals.
The 2019 Call for Proposals will be open until 4 December 2019 (23:59 CET) and will disburse USD 4 million to approved projects aimed at reducing road traffic fatalities. Priority will be given to individual country and multi-country projects that have immediate and tangible impact.
Eligible projects will respond to one or more of three priorities, guided by the Fund’s Global Framework Plan of Action for Road Safety:
- Priority 1: Technical assistance to identify missing elements in existing national road safety system(s), or in preparation of an action plan for establishing such systems.
- Priority 2: Technical assistance to implement specific actions for improving and completing national road safety system(s) in accordance with an existing or to-be-developed national action plan.
- Priority 3: Technical assistance to help improve overall road safety management in the national road safety system(s).
Government endorsement of projects is strongly preferred. In order to capitalize on synergies to achieve impact on the ground, partnerships are encouraged with other organizations, multi-lateral development banks, and road safety NGOs.
Leveraging additional resources through co-financing to implement or sustain activities is also strongly encouraged.
The Fund will not finance infrastructure projects.
Only the Fund’s participating UN organizations are eligible to apply directly to the call. Entities that are interested in responding to the call are encouraged to reach out directly to the focal points of the participating UN organizations, which are listed here.
The application guidelines, frequently asked questions and the application form are available at this page.
The secretariat of the Fund will be organizing a dedicated briefing session about the 2019 Call for Proposals for all participating UN organizations and their potential partners on 25 October 2019 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Participating UN organizations that are not based in Geneva will be invited to attend via remote connection.
The briefing will focus on the Global Framework Plan and the Priorities and Criteria for Funding Projects, which will serve as criteria for project selection.
In an effort to identify and finance high-impact projects, the Fund earlier invited applications from road safety experts to be recruited as individual contractors to conduct appraisals of the project proposals submitted to the 2019 Call for Proposals. The deadline for expressions of interest is 27 October 2019 (23:59 CET). Further information is available here.
About the UN Road Safety Fund
Established in April 2018, the United Nations Road Safety Fund aims to help low- and middle-income countries put in place effective national road safety systems in order to a) substantially curb the number of fatalities and injuries from road crashes, and (b) reduce economic losses resulting from them. Its grants strengthen national and local capacity to manage and improve road safety by providing funding and technical expertise.
The Global Framework Plan of Action for Road Safety guides the Fund’s activities, focusing on applying the safe system approach in road safety management: safe users; safe vehicles; safe roads; and effective post-crash response, and addressing them as the essential blocks for developing an integrated and effective national road safety system.
The vision of the Fund is to build a world where roads are safe for every road user, everywhere. Its mission is to finance – and leverage further funding for – high-impact projects based on established and internationally recognized best practices that increase road safety and minimize and eventually eliminate road crash trauma for all road users.
As a unique financing instrument, bringing together concerned UN organizations, governments, private sector, academia and civil society under one umbrella and for a common purpose, the Fund supports concrete actions helping to achieve the road safety-related targets (target 3.6 and target 11.2) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
So far, the Fund has attracted almost USD 20 million in pledges from 12 donors from both the private and public sector. It is currently implementing five pilot projects in eight countries across four regions.