Road deaths and trauma are a major and rising cause of death and serious injuries across the world. In poor and middle income countries the issue is particularly stark. More than 1.2 million people currently die on the world’s roads each year, with an estimated cost of 2-3% of global GDP and the toll is rising. This is a public health priority in the Sustainable Development Goals endorsed by the global community in September 2015 and in the United Nations decade of road safety to 2020.
The FIA Foundation commissioned Impact Strategist to lead a team including Social Finance UK and Effective Philanthropy to explore how social innovation and impact investment approaches could lead to a breakthrough.
The initial report: Breaking the Deadlock co-authored by Impact Strategist and Social Finance UK was designed to provide thought leadership and inspire concrete action. It highlights opportunities for lessons and benefits of social impact investment to be applied to the across high, middle and low-income contexts. The breakthrough thinking transparently links investment to health outcomes, including through ‘payment for success’ approaches, in a way that also has potential to engender new understanding and build new alliances for road traffic injury prevention.
Impact Strategist and Social Finance UK’s approach to the report was designed to promote a productive and collaborative dialogue between key leaders and encourage concrete action to demonstrate an impact driven approach.
A workshop in London followed in September 2015 including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN Office of Project Services, non-government organisations, academics and practitioners in impact investment and road safety. The next stage in train for release in 2016 involves case studies to illustrate the impact investment approach.
