On 14 April 2026, the third session of the Road Safety Capacity-Building Program Masterclass Series– The Safe System Approach: From Theory to Action was held. The series is co-presented by the Asia Pacific Road Safety Observatory (APRSO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in partnership with the Vision Zero Academy.  It is supported by a grant from the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan through the ADB.

The session attracted over 240 participants from 67 countries, and was moderated by Jessica Truong, Director at Lösningar. The session opened with Maria Krafft, Director of Traffic Safety at the Swedish Transport Administration who highlighted the critical role of shared responsibility in advancing road safety in Sweden. She emphasised the importance of an integrated system of work across sectors, where collaboration between public and private stakeholders drive innovation. By aligning road safety with broader sustainability goals and embedding it within workplace safety, Sweden has strengthened its approach and achieved meaningful safety improvements. 

Matts-Åke Belin, Global Lead for the Decade of Action for Road Safety at the World Health Organization made a compelling case for shifting responsibility away from individual road users and towards the system itself. Matts-Åke emphasised that under the Safe System approach, while road users are expected to follow the rules set by system designers, the ultimate responsibility remains with system designers to ensure that no one is killed or seriously injured, even if road users fail to do so. 

Further to this, Johan Lindberg, Senior Advisor for Road Safety at the Swedish Transport Administration outlined how responsibility for road safety is assigned in Sweden. Johan described a collaborative national approach involving government agencies, vehicle manufactures, police and both public and private organisations, demonstrating how shared responsibility is operationalised in practice. 

Wrapping up the session, Mirdin Eshenaliev, Lead Project Officer at the Asian Development Bank and Egidijus Skrodenis, Partner at MC Mobility Consultants shared insights from their road safety project in the Kyrgyz Republic. Through a strong partnership approach, the project delivered a number of impactful deliverables including high quality road infrastructure, implementation of a road audit system, and most importantly, establishment of a sustainable foundation for continued improvements in road safety.

 The webinar series was and will continue with the final session scheduled on 28 April 2026. Read more about the upcoming sessions here.