iRAP warmly welcomes Samar Abouraad to the iRAP team. Samar will be stepping into the role of Safer Journeys Specialist for Europe while the recently appointed Safer Journeys Lead for Europe, Olivera Rozi, takes maternity leave.

The Safer Journeys roles are part of iRAP’s Partnerships For 2030 Impact strategy, which places partnerships at the heart of the programme 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 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.

Samar will be working 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.

Samar is a civil engineer and senior road safety specialist in transportation planning, roads and highway engineering.

She brings to the position almost 30 years’ experience working on road safety in low-, middle- and high-income countries, including as a senior advisor at the Global Road Safety Partnership, senior expert to the World Bank and European Union, and in roles with AECOM and Egis.

Samar is a Road Safety Certified Auditor with specialised knowledge in safe mobility and road safety policies, traffic law enforcement, capacity building, crash data analysis, roads and highways safe design, multi-modal urban mobility planning.

On taking up the position, Samar said, “I am very happy and excited to join the IRAP family and to begin working with EuroRAP partners on creating safer journeys in Europe for all.”

Samar is proficient in English, French, and Arabic, and is based in Geneva.

She can be contacted via email on samar.abouraad@irap.org