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The Network

IFP is an officially accredited organisation at the United Nations. Here are the reasons why this is important, and why this status has to be used more actively by pedestrian specialists in many different places of the world.

The United Nations Organisation UNO is a large network of organisations. Geneva (Switzerland) is an important knot in the network, that’s why for practical reasons, Fussverkehr Schweiz (the Swiss Pedestrian Association) has started with the task to represent the pedestrians (IFP) permanently in one of the regional UN -organisations.

Ideas often count more, if they come from far away. This is particularly the case for politicians. They don’t like to admit that the opposition party has a good idea. In a European country, it may be easier to promote an idea that comes from Australia than one that has been in a paper of the local political opposition. That’s why we seek to have an international exchange, one which helps us to point out better solutions from wherever they come.

The UN-Network has seats in many different countries. In order to communicate with this network efficiently we have to build a pedestrian specialist’s network at least as well branched.

So far, each of the following regional UN-commissions had the task to deal with road traffic and safety:

Regional Commissions of ECOSOC (the UN Economic and Social Council):

• Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) www.uneca.org
• Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) www.unece.org
• Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) www.eclac.org
• Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) www.unescap.org
• Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) www.escwa.org.lb

More about the UN-Networking, in particular the WHO see Road Safety

Last but not least, let’s not forget the social factor. Professionals in pedestrian matters are very few in each country. Sometimes we may feel lonely in front of all those well-paid specialists for cars, truck, motorcycles, buses and trains. It is important to know that what we stand for is not just a personal opinion but one based on research and practise, and a cause worth promoting all over the world.