NIGERIAN NGO TO UNVEIL 12 SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS AT LONDON SAFETY CONFAB
The 10th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion held every two years as the largest and premier International gathering for those working in the field of safety and injury prevention, will convene in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, UK from September21 to 24, 2010.
This year's conference widely referred to as Safety 2010, is organised by the World Health Organisation (WTO) as a unique opportunity for leading scientists, road safety practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from health, criminal justice, education, public administration and industry to examine new scientific developments related to prevention of unintentional injuries and violence.
Safety 2010 is expected to present a dynamic mix of abstract-driven sessions, debates, fora and industry sponsored satellite symposia including a vibrant forum for participants to explore how state-of-the-art science can be applied to the realities of developing countries. On road safety, 12 abstracts which cover topics across prevention, pre-hospital and post-crash authored by members of Prompt Assistance to Victims of Road Accidents (PATVORA Initiative), a Nigerian-based NGO, has been selected for presentation at the global conference.
Commenting on the conference, Dr. David Oba, the Co-ordinator of PATVORA Initiative, 'we are extremely proud to be the lead NGO in African on road safety research and to have this opportunity to share our success with colleagues from around the world and to learn from their experiences.'
He stated that the selection of twelve abstracts of the PATVORA Initiative by an international panel of world-renowned scientists and public health experts serving on the Conference Organizing Committee reflects a genuine commitment of global community to ensuring that road safety is examined in the context of developing countries.
Dr Oba in acknowledging the efforts of other NGOs working on road safety research added that 'Scientific knowledge is critical, but we also need political will to translate research into programmes to prevent and reduce road crashes in a developing country like Nigeria'. He expressed satisfaction with the level of collaboration existing between some NGOs and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) by confirming that the platform extended to the PATVORA Initiative by the FRSC in the past eight years has served well in complementing the efforts of the FRSC on local and global response to Road Traffic Injury Reduction in Nigeria, an opportunity that highlights the critical connection between National Road Safety Agencies and NGOs in Africa.
Dr. Oba further affirmed that a 50 percent Road Traffic Injury reduction target can be accomplished in the forthcoming UN Decade of Action on road safety 2011-2020 through enhanced collaboration between the FRSC and related organisations. He stated that Safety 2010 coincides with a major global push by the United Nations for expanded activities on road safety in developing countries and called on the World Bank to use its recent interest on road safety in Nigeria to demonstrate the importance of enhanced investments on road safety research.