- Mr. Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator to India
- Dr. Roderico Ofrin, WHO Representative to India
- Dr Etienne Krug, Director, Department of Social Determinants of Health, WHO
- Dr Jagnoor Jagnoor, Co-director WHO Collaborating Centre on Injury Prevention and Trauma Care
- Delegates, Partners, Colleagues and Friends
I am pleased to welcome you all to World Safety 2024, the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.
This year, we are here with a reminder that it is our collective task to be "Building a safer future for all,” and that it is the task of this conference to explore “Equitable and sustainable strategies for injury and violence prevention."
Unfortunately, we are assembled here against a backdrop of very worrying statistics.
In 2019, a staggering 4.4 million lives were lost around the world due to injury. This is an astonishing 8% of all deaths that year.
For people between the ages of 5 and 29, three of the top five causes of death are injury-related, with road injuries, self-harm, and interpersonal violence leading the way.
Globally, road crashes claimed an estimated 1.19 million lives in 2021, and our WHO South-East Asia Region accounts for approximately 28% of these tragic deaths. Thankfully, since 2010, there has been a 5% reduction in global road traffic deaths, and a 2% decrease in our region.
The 2020 Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children reveals that:
- half of all children suffer from violence each year
- One-third of students aged between 11 and 15 years suffered from bullying, and
- One-third of students aged between 13 and 15 years were in a physical fight in the past year.
Horrifyingly, as many as 120 million girls and young women, under the age of 20, have suffered some forms of forced sexual contact.
Violence and abuse have far-reaching impacts. Adults who suffered childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse are more likely to be involved in interpersonal violence, and even more likely to attempt suicide.
I know I speak for everyone here when I say that these number are completely unacceptable to us all, and it is up to us to do something. Fortunately, the strategies exist for us to reverse these trends, and improve the many different facets of safety that we have spoken about.
Road Safety
Our WHO South-East Asia Regional Status Report on Road Safety will be launched shortly. This report outlines Road Traffic Injury patterns in our countries and highlights best practices and country-specific interventions. It is both timely and essential for assessing our current position, and for guiding necessary actions to achieve global targets.
Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and two or three-wheelers constitute 66% of all reported road traffic deaths in our region. This clearly requires a strategic rethinking of our roads and road networks. These need to be designed prioritizing those most at risk: children and adolescents, people with disabilities, pedestrians, and other vulnerable groups. Road safety and safe environments must be designed for people of all age groups as well as all physical abilities, social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
This can be our moment to rethink and redo mobility for healthy cities. Taking a holistic approach to solving this problem requires a cross-cutting, multi-sectoral approach. It will require us to collaborate with local government, urban planners, traffic policing and law enforcement, and others. I am a great believer in collaborations and partnerships - and expanding these to non-traditional stakeholders, such as those I just mentioned.
Violence Against Children
In tackling violence against children, I am very pleased that WHO has initiated the INSPIRE framework. This is a collection of seven strategies for that have shown success in reducing violence against children. These are:
- Implementation and enforcement of laws
- Norms & values
- Safe environments
- Parent and caregiver support
- Income & economic strengthening
- Response and supports services, and
- Education and life skills
This tool has proven to be the most effective way to prevent violence against children, and a well-designed INSPIRE programme contributes to a 20 to 50% reduction in violence. I would like to urge all the countries of our region to use the INSPIRE framework to its fullest potential.
Women, girls, adolescents and vulnerable populations
Beyond this, our Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience calls for reaffirming investment in women, girls, adolescents and vulnerable populations. Strategic investments in their health yields multiplicative and multigenerational effects, even beyond health.
Mental Health & Psychosocial Support
In dealing with the effects of abuse or violence on people, particular attention must be paid to their mental health and the provision of psychosocial support. Our Regional Roadmap also recognizes the importance of mental health, well-being and quality of life, and views them as essential components of sustainable health, well-being and socioeconomic development.
It calls for increased investment in infrastructure of mental health systems, including financial investment and human resources. It encourages multisectoral actions in addressing the social determinants of mental health, well-being and quality of life, and calls for adding views of other disciplines such as social sciences, anthropology, and the humanities.
We are aiming for strengthened mental health infrastructure that can be integrated into health system components and programmes. This will enable addressing self-harm, interpersonal violence and the effects of abuse.
Before I conclude, I would like to leave you with two thoughts.
The first is that when dealing with the multi-faceted issues of safety of different population groups, we have to look for solutions that involve non-traditional collaborations. We have allies and partners in non-health portfolios, and we must engage with them.
The second thought is about how ensuring the safety of vulnerable groups enhances the safety of everyone in a society. For example, when we design roads and pavements, buildings and other physical infrastructure - if we make these accessible for persons with disabilities, we would have made them safer for everyone to use.
On that note, I will end by reiterating the commitment of our WHO South-East Asia Regional Office to being a steadfast partner to you all in improving the safety of all in our region.
Thank you.