Geneva, 14 February 2023 – Today, on Valentine’s Day – with its focus on sharing moments with loved ones – the UN Road Safety Fund closes its #moments2live4 global campaign. The campaign has highlighted the devastating impact unsafe roads have on children and called for individual donations in support of its $40 million replenishment target.

Since 2018, the Fund has been the leading way for individuals, corporations and nations to provide direct assistance to the response efforts of the Fund’s partners and the most streamlined and impactful way to direct road safety support to countries with critical needs.

For just over two months, the Fund secretariat has worked with more than 14 campaign supporters with a combined network of 200 million social media followers. Launched on World Children’s Day, Sunday 20 November 2022 – which also marked World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims – the campaign has helped to raise awareness of the danger of road traffic crashes for children aged five and above in many countries worldwide.

In partnership with the Royal Mail United Kingdom (UK), the campaign also reached 130,000 homes in London, UK, sensitizing families on the importance of financing road safety to help address the critical gaps in developing countries where support is urgently needed. To find out more, view the Campaign Highlights here.

With one person dying on the road every 24 seconds across the world, and 500 children succumbing to injuries caused by road crashes every 24 hours globally, road safety is an urgent crisis. To date, financial contributions to the Fund have enabled a wide range of partners to provide 36 life-saving road safety project interventions in 46 countries including road safety management; safer roads; safer vehicles; safer road users, and post-crash response.

“Investing in road safety with children in mind is a sure way of investing in sustainable solutions for present and future generations. Through our campaign we worked alongside supporters from the entertainment industry, tyre sector and postal services who joined efforts to highlight low-tech and low cost solutions,” states Nneka Henry, Head of the UN Road Safety Fund. “We hope that thanks to greater awareness on the impact unsafe roads has on children, more governments, companies, individuals and families everywhere will support the Fund and help keep road users safe in particular the most vulnerable in the countries hardest hit.”

Visit roadsafetyfund.un.org to learn about the UN’s response to the global road safety crisis for children and to keep up-to-date with the Fund’s initiatives on supporting the global response efforts on road safety in lowand middle-income countries.

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Notes to Editors: The UN Road Safety Fund (UNRSF) – set up in 2018 – is a global partnership working to help halve road deaths and injuries in low- and middle-income countries, where over 90% of the 1.3 million fatal crashes occur each year. The Fund works with communities, civil society, governments, companies and UN agencies to address critical gaps in national road safety systems. As an innovative pooled fund, the UNRSF mobilizes financing from private, public and individual donors channelling resources to high-impact, scalable and sustainable road safety projects worldwide. Visit the Fund’s #moments2live4 campaign web page here.

Media Contact:

UN Road Safety Fund Media Officer: linda.olango@un.org

You can download the press release here.