Abstract

The Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have as objective to halve road safety deaths and injuries by 2020. These targets have captured the attention of global actors who have the status and resources to influence national policy makers and international donors. But these targets are a shared responsibility, and all partners, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are essential to this work. Efforts are underway to establish the UN Road Safety Fund to provide catalytic grant funding; it is estimated than an additional US$770 million will be needed annually over the next decade to achieve the SDG road safety targets.

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety has as strategic objective to foster multi-sector partnerships following the SDGs and goal number 17. Through the years the Alliance has grown its stakeholder’s network, having the capability to successfully work with governments, multinational companies, international and local organizations.

In 2015 the Alliance launched an initiative with FedEx, with the company’s pledge of investing USD 1 M to support the Alliance Empowerment Program, a ground breaking capacity-building initiative that mentors, trains, funds, and convenes NGOs from across the globe to align them towards the SDGs number 3 and 11.

This collaboration between the Alliance and FedEx has proven how the private sector can play a key role beyond the economic support. FedEx has provided best-in-class training from its experts in communications, road safety, marketing, leadership and other capacity building topics, for the Alliance Empowerment Program.

Multi-sector partnerships have great potential if efforts and resources are aligned with global goals. Civil society and not-for-profit organizations have an opportunity to take the lead to pursue companies to revitalize global partnerships for sustainable development goals.