We are pleased to announce that Olivera Rozi will be taking up the newly created position of Safer Journeys Lead for Europe.

In this new role, Olivera will be supporting partners across Europe to achieve our common goals of safer roads and safer journeys for everyone.

Olivera brings a decade of experience working with road authorities, development banks, motoring clubs, research institutes, the European Union, development banks, associations and NGOs on major road safety projects such as RADAR and SLAIN.

Olivera will officially begin in the role on 1 January 2023, allowing time for her to help complete the enormously successful SABRINA project which brings together 15 partners across 9 countries and has made extensive use of the new CycleRAP rating system.

Olivera is passionate about the impact that safe roads can have on people’s lives, the role they play in enabling the efficient movement of large and growing populations, and their importance in promoting the healthiest and cleanest modes of transport – walking and cycling.

On her appointment as the new Safer Journeys Lead for Europe, Olivera said “I look forward to supporting our partners in identifying high-risk roads, developing policies and business cases for investment, and mobilising finance for upgrades that will save lives. Together we can create a Europe free of high-risk roads and celebrate and share success.”

The Safer Journeys Lead for Europe position is part of iRAP’s Partnerships For 2030 Impact strategy, which places partnerships at the heart of the program and recognizes the many successes in eliminating high risk roads that have been achieved though collaboration between road authorities, development banks, donors, institutes, NGOs and the private sector.

The iRAP programme now extends to nearly 110 countries and 25,000 partners worldwide. In this new position Olivera will integrate the EuroRAP programme with the global iRAP programme and, in doing so, help ensure that there is efficient sharing of knowledge, experience and expertise among RAP partners worldwide.

The target of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 is a halving of road death and injury and across Europe countries are putting into place plans that align with the global target and ultimately aim to achieve vision zero by 2050. Central to the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety is the achievement of Targets 3 and 4 which aim to ensure designs and most existing roads reach 3-stars for all road users.

In the new role, Olivera will aim to build on the many successes of the EuroRAP members and partners during the past two decades and support efforts to ensure that roads and designs are fundamentally safe and accessible for all modes, abilities, and journeys.

Europe is a leader in global road safety and continued innovation will be needed to meet the 2030 and 2050 targets. Olivera will encourage strong input from among partner organisations in innovative initiatives such as AiRAP, CycleRAP, Star Ratings for Designs (SR4D), and Star Rating for Schools (SR4S).