Regional road safety observatories: benchmarking of information systems

Road traffic deaths and serious injuries are a global public health issue, particularly in the Arab region , where the mortality rate from road crashes surpasses the global average and is more than three times higher than the European region's average. In this regard, an Arab Integrated Road Safety Observatory is being developed to help Arab countries execute evidence-based policies, strategies, and action plans, as well as meet the global targets of the second decade of action (2021–2030). Because numerous experiences exist at the worldwide level, the current paper aims to serve as a platform and reference for the Arab Observatory's development of an integrated Regional Road Safety Information System (RRSIS). In this regard, current RRSISs in various parts of the world were extensively examined and compared using literature and semi-structured interviews with international specialists. Six RRSIS from regional observatories or RRSISs with regional data sets were included in the benchmarking. As a result, various parallels and contrasts were found: a) at the technical level, each RRSIS has its own areas of interest (data, policy, or both), scope (aggregated or disaggregated data), and thus different sets of collected variables and values; b) at the organizational level, several similarities are identified, particularly with regard to the organizational structure; c) at the financial level, multiple differences are revealed, either for financial resources or scale expenditure. On the one hand, benchmarking is required to learn from prior experiences and current models as a source of inspiration. On the other hand, harmonization and coordination assure and guarantee consistency, integrity, and communication between the future Arab RRSIS and the existing regional RRSIS.