iRAP warmly welcomes Nathalie Chiavassa to the iRAP team. Nathalie has joined the team as Safer Journeys Lead for Africa, a new role created thanks to the support of the FIA Foundation. Nathalie will be responsible for implementing our Partnerships for 2030 Impact strategy in Africa, helping our partners and countries to develop policy, build capacity, mobilize finance and shape projects that save lives.

iRAP’s Partnerships For 2030 Impact strategy 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.

In this new role for Africa, Nathalie will build on recent successes such as Tanzania Ten Step Plan project which brought together government and partners to establish TanRAP, build capacity, shape updates to design standards and contribute to active road corridor upgrade projects.

Nathalie is a seasoned road safety professional with a passion for making roads safer for everyone. She brings more than 15 years of experience in road safety to the role, starting in Denmark and then mostly in Africa in countries including Senegal, Tanzania, and Chad. Nathalie lives in Mali and speaks French, English and Spanish.

Nathalie has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in national strategy and action plans, crash data collection, road safety education and campaigns, road safety audits, and providing technical road safety advice.

In this new role for Africa, Nathalie will complement the Safer Journeys Leads in Europe (Samar Abouraad whilst Olivera Rozi is on maternity leave) and in the Americas (Edgar Zamora), each of which are made possible thanks to the continuous support of the FIA Foundation.

On her appointment as the new Safer Journeys Regional Leader for Africa, Nathalie said “I am very enthusiastic and honoured to start this position with iRAP and look forward to using my knowledge and experience to help make roads safer in Africa”.

Greg Smith, iRAP’s Global Programme Director is thrilled to have Nathalie join the iRAP Team, “The life-saving potential for safer roads and good speed management in Africa is enormous. The WHO estimates that more than 250,000 people are killed in road crashes each year in the region, and millions more suffer often life-changing injuries.

“By ensuring that most travel happens on 3-star or better roads more than 23 million fatalities and serious injuries could be prevented over the life of the treatments.’

“Thanks to the FIA Foundation, we are looking forward to seeing Nathalie embrace her new role in Africa – working with our partners to help not only save lives on African roads, but also promote healthy and sustainable forms of mobility such as walking and cycling, including through the use of Star Rating for Schools and Star Rating for Designs for safer school journeys and road designs. ” Mr Smith said.

Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation Executive Director, said: “The FIA Foundation welcomes the appointment of a Safer Journeys Regional Leader for Africa, a move which represents a vital new focus for iRAP’s work. Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the most dangerous roads in the world and iRAP’s commitment to safer roads will save lives across the region.”

Nathalie can be contacted on email nathalie.chiavassa@irap.org

Welcome on board Nathalie!