The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE Network) held their annual retreat in Krakow from 28-30 September. FREE Network invited EaP RSO’s Team Data Lead Mariam Lobjanidze to present the Road Safety Performance Index for Eastern Partnership Countries to the assembled researchers.
The Index represents a new tool designed to provide a more comprehensive picture of road safety performance across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. These countries have consistently experienced substantially higher road traffic fatalities rates than the European Union and the Index supports a shift towards highlighting the underlying factors which influence these statistics, such as driver behaviour, road infrastructure and socio-economic conditions. The five domains of the Index provide a more complete picture of road safety than crash statistics alone and enables policymakers to understand where their country performs well, where challenges remain and which interventions are likely to have the greatest impact.
FREE Network brings together leading research institutes and academic experts working on economic policy challenges across Eastern Europe and emerging markets. They work to bridge the divide between academic research and economic policy by publishing evidence-based policy briefs and hosting events to foster productive discussion between researchers, policymakers and practitioners. FREE Network has also launched a series of joint initiatives on gender economics (FROGEE), democracy and the media (FROMDEE) and the environment (FREECE). At their annual retreats, representatives gather to exchange research ideas and to discuss the work of its institutions and the collaborative efforts of its members.
This year, researchers from FREE Network’s member institutions in Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia gathered to attend academic seminars, parallel thematic sessions, and a poster session, providing opportunities for researchers to present their work, exchange ideas and discuss potential collaborations. Rather than focusing on a single overarching theme, the academic programme covered a broad range of economic and policy issues, including war and sanctions, gender inequality, labour markets and energy.
Mariam presented EaP RSO’s research at the academic poster session on the second day. The poster explained how the Index is built and the data it produces for the five countries. It highlighted the Observatory’s strategic and evidence-based approach to improving road safety, which takes the entire road system into account, and the utility of the Index as a practical diagnostic tool for policymakers. Her exchanges with researchers who engaged with the poster provided a valuable opportunity to share EaP RSO’s data-driven work on road safety, receive feedback and learn about research being conducted at academic institutions across the network.
