Sweden: A high-income country with a population of 10.46 million. In 2021, the estimated rate per 100 000 population was 2.1 (WHO, 2023). Sweden has acceded to 6 out of 7 UN road safety legal instruments.
During the mission, the Special Envoy met with the following officials to advocate for safer roads in the country:
• H.E. Mr. Andreas Carlson, Minister Infrastructure and Housing, Sweden;
• H.E. Mr. Etienne de Gonneville, Ambassador of France to Sweden;
• Ms. Lotte Brondum, Executive Director, Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety;
• Ms. Raquel Barrios, Executive Director, Youth Organization for Road Safety;
• Mr. YBhg. Dato' Jana Santhiran Muniayan, Secretary-General, Ministry of Transport of Malaysia and Prof. Dr. Wong Shaw Voon, Chair, Board of Directors, Institute of Road Safety, Malaysia;
• Ms. Ylva Wessén, Chief Executive Officer, Folksam;
• Mr. Pers Ericsson, Executive Vice President and Head of Sustainability and Mr. Peter Kronberg, Director Governmental Affairs, Autoliv;
• Mr. Kristian Schmidt, Director for Land Transport, European Union Commission;
• Mr. Roberto Maiorana, Director-General, Transport Administration, Sweden (Trafikverket);
• Mr. Jacob Thärnå, Head of Sustainable Solutions, Scania;
• Ms. Geertje Hegeman, Head, Traffic Safety, Ministry of Infrastructure, the Netherlands;
• Mr. Said Dahdah, Head, Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), World Bank;
• Mr. Hideaki Takaishi, Executive Chief Engineer, Honda;
• Mr. Weimin Ren, Chief of Service, Economics Affairs, ESCAP;
• Ms. Eva Bjork and Mr. Kenneth Svensson, Vision Zero Academy.
On 26 June, the Special Envoy contributed to the opening of the Vision Zero Conference, organized by the Government Offices of Sweden, the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Innovation Agency Vinnova, and supported by the WHO and the World Bank GRSF. On the margins, the Special Envoy visited the Volvo Cars Showroom hosting the Road Safety Industry Meeting. Lastly, on 28 June 2023, the Special Envoy delivered a welcome speech at the Heads of National Road Safety Agencies Meeting organized by the WHO.