The Kingdom of Morocco won, Wednesday in Accra, the first edition of the Kofi Annan Prize for road safety, organized jointly by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Road Safety and the Kofi Annan Foundation.
During this first edition, the Kingdom was awarded for its efforts and its African leadership in road safety, said a press release from the National Road Safety Agency (NARSA). The Kofi Annan Prize was presented by the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo to the Director of NARSA representing the Minister of Transport and Logistics, in the presence of the Moroccan Ambassador to Ghana.
The objective of this initiative is to reward and promote good practices in road safety from African countries to serve as a model and source of inspiration for other countries, the statement continues, indicating that it is also to encourage countries to work harder to save more human lives on the African continent which has the highest road fatality rate in the world, ie 26.6 killed per 100,000 inhabitants once morest a world average of 17.5.
The Kofi Annan Road Safety Prize thus aims to be a catalyst for change for the continent, which change is necessary because the costs for African economies are too high, reaching up to 5% of GDP, according to the press release.
Participated in this ceremony, Vera Songwe Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Secretary of UNECA, Jean Todt Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Road Safety, the Director of the Transport Policy Program in Africa (SSATP ) from the World Bank, the President of the Kofi Annan Foundation and members of the Ghanaian government.
