The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, (Safety 2024) was held from September 2-4, 2024 in New Delhi, with a focus on global efforts in areas such as road safety and drowning prevention. With the theme "Building a Safer Future for All: Equitable and Sustainable Strategies for Injury and Violence Prevention", Safety 2024 highlighted global efforts to reduce injury and violence, particularly among vulnerable populations like children and adolescents.
The conference was jointly hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi; George Institute for Global Health in collaboration with the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS); National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS); and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Among the dignitaries who attended the conference were the Shri Nitin Gadkari (Hon’ble Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways; Ms. Saima Wazed (Regional Director, WHO – SEARO); Mr. Shombi Sharp (UN Resident Coordinator); Prof Dr. Atul Goel, (Director General of Health Services, Government of India); Mr. Etienne Krug (Director, Department of Social Determinates of Health, WHO); Mr. Philip Green (Australian Ambassador) and Dr. V.K. Paul (Member, Niti Aayog)
Around 700 delegates from 57 countries attended the conference. Over the course of five days, 26 workshops, 5 thought provoking plenary sessions, 7 state of the Art sessions, 5 spotlight sessions and over 60 parallel sessions had taken place.
The pre-conference workshops were held on August 31 and over September. This included the GRSP/GHAI pre-conference workshop on 'Supporting advocacy for evidence-based road safety policies' at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on September 1.
The conference unanimously adopted the ‘Delhi Declaration’, with participants reaffirming commitment to addressing the pressing global challenges of injuries and violence, while emphasizing the principles of equity, accountability, and environmental sustainability.
Participation of RSN Partners
Representatives of seven Road Safety Network (RSN) partner organizations from India, attended the conference. A meeting of the Indian partner organsation with Kelly Larson and Becky Bavinger (Bloomberg Philanthropies) was held on Sept. 2 over lunch, with intense discussions about the Indian road safety scenario. The meeting was attended by Taifur Rahman (GRSP) and Mervyn Christian (GHAI).
Three India partner organizations, CAG (represented by George Cheriyan); IIT Kharagpur (Prof. Bhargab Maitra ) and SaveLife (Karuna Raina) made oral presentations at the Conference. Four partner organizations, Parisar (Sandeep Gaikwad), CEE (Amar Karan), Consumer Voice (Rinki Sharma) and CUTS (Madhu Sudan Sharma), made posters and the same were exhibited.
Mr. Cheriyan spoke on the topic, ‘Social Determinates and Drunken Driving’. He also spoke at the pre-conference workshop on the topic ‘Facilitate policy change and institutionalize new/improved policy/law'.