Albania joins global action on “10 strategies for keeping children safe on the road”

The WHO Country Office in Albania supported the Institute of Public Health and the Ministry of Health in a series of activities to celebrate the Third UN Global Road Safety Week and raise awareness about children's safety on the roads. On 4–8 May 2015, health promotion experts of the Institute of Public Health met with school children and discussed practical tips of staying safe on the roads and becoming empowered to join the larger public actions for improved road safety. The Institute of Public Health, with support from the Tirana regional health and education authorities, organized a painting competition. The winning painting won a prize and was included in the Road Safety Week poster designed by the Institute of Public Health and distributed across the country during the week.

Intersectoral collaboration

Following the promotional activities, a policy dialogue was held in Tirana, Albania, on 14 May 2015. It brought together about 25 representatives of Government sectors such as health, education, transport and interior, as well as non-governmental organizations, such as the Albanian Red Cross, and professional bodies like the Faculty of Engineering. The meeting was opened by 4 deputy ministers from the Ministry of Health (Dr Milva Ekonomi), the Ministry of Interior (Mr Ilirjan Mustafaraj), the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (Mr Ylli Manjani) and the Ministry of Education and Sports (Ms Nora Malaj). The deputy minsters described the contribution of their ministries to the safety of children on the roads and the importance of collective action across sectors.

Dr Ledia Lazeri welcomed participants on behalf of WHO and emphasised how this policy dialogue is an excellent illustration of the European Health 2020 policy of a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. Dr Dinesh Sethi (WHO/Europe) presented "Ten strategies to keep children safe on the road" and a snapshot of Albania as reported in the "Global status report on road safety 2013". Representatives from the different ministries reported that great strides had been made since 2013, with a 40% decline in child road crash mortality in Albania since 2009.

Next steps

Nevertheless, much more needed to be done, and participants resolved that progress could be best achieved by:

• an interministerial coordination mechanism;
• better communication between road safety partners;
• a public better informed through social marketing campaigns about risk behaviours;
• campaigns to enforce legislation;
• more engagement of municipal authorities to set 30 km per hour speed limits and make infrastructure changes to protect child pedestrians;
• enactment of laws to set standards for motorcycle licensing and helmet usage;
• greater efforts to improve usage of seat belts and child restraints;
• more coordinated work to prevent drink–driving and driving under the influence of drugs; and
• improvement in first responder times.