Photo story – Making roads safe: the case of Kyrgyzstan

According to official data, the number of people who died in road crashes in Kyrgyzstan in 2017 declined 11.5% compared to 2016. The country achieved this progress through a set of government initiatives to increase road safety by:

• reforming patrol police;
• introducing better speed enforcement;
• implementing checks on driving licences;
• enforcing testing for vehicle roadworthiness; and
• implementing the installation of video control systems.

However, Kyrgyzstan still has the second-highest rate of road crashes reported in the WHO European Region.

WHO supports Kyrgyzstan in decreasing mortality rates on its roads. The Save LIVES road safety technical package developed by WHO is a tool to help countries achieve a 50% reduction in deaths due to road crashes by 2020 – a goal set by the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Sustainable Development Goals.

After introducing the package in Kyrgyzstan in 2017, the Ministry of Health requested WHO support for its implementation in 2018 and 2019.