CAF receives recognition for its contribution to occupational road safety in Ibero-America

The contribution of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, to the occupational safety and health in companies, workers, and society in general, was recognized with the Gold Merit for Professional Merit with yellow distinction by the Consejo General de Titulados Superiores en Relaciones Industriales y Licenciados en Ciencias del Trabajo (General Council of Higher Graduates in Industrial Relations and Work Sciences) of Spain. 

With the promotion of roadway projects with characteristics that improve the security of users as a requirement to access financing, production of contents, and generation of spaces to discuss, socialize, and disseminate best practices in occupational road safety, CAF contributes its grain of sand to stop a global public health problem, with repercussions in the family, economic, and social spheres.  

The recognition event was held in the framework of the II Ibero-American Congress for the Prevention of Occupational Risks and Occupational Road Safety (PRESEVILAB 2016) at the Crowne Plaza Asuncion Hotel, where the relevant actors in the area of occupational risk prevention and road safety discussed about how to manage effective acting programs to promote road safety measures in the entrepreneurial environment. Of the 317 million working accidents per year around the world, many are traffic accidents, so it is important to establish specific prevention plans that contribute to their reduction. 

In addition to safekeeping the health and physical and mental integrity of individuals, prevention has a positive impact on the world economy, as the cost of accidents in the work place reaches between to 1.2  and 2.4 percent of the world's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This percentage increases to between 3 and 4 percent of the Ibero-American GDP, a geographic area where it is estimated that close to 30,000 people die every year due to occupational road accidents, so the application of prevention measures and policies in this area is essential to reduce accidents, mortality, and damages, and to support the World Health Organization in the achievement of the objectives of the Decade of Action for Road Safety.