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PIARC (World Road Association), founded in 1909 and comprising 125 member governments from all over the world, is the global forum for exchange of knowledge and experience on roads, road transport policies and practices. With consultative status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the Association is contributing to a stable and sustainable global development of the road and transport sector.

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The World Road Association has launched its new Strategic Plan

The World Road Association (PIARC) has launched its new Strategic Plan by organizing kick-off meetings for all its 18 Technical Committees. About 350 experts participated in the meetings in order to discuss how to organize their work for the next four year cycle.

Welcome desk kick-off meetings of Strategic Plan - World Road Association

Welcome desk during the kick-off meetings

The World Road Association structures its activities through a Strategic Plan that confirms the goal of the Association to remain a leading international forum for creating and disseminating knowledge in the road transport area. Actually, during the 2012-2015 cycle, the Association was able to publish 51 reports, 3 online manuals and organize 26 international seminars.

The new Strategic Plan covers years 2016 to 2019 and details the topics that the association will focus on over the next cycle. At the technical level, the Association organizes its efforts into five Strategic Themes:
- Management and Finance
- Access and Mobility
- Safety
- Infrastructure
- Climate Change, Environment and Disasters

Patrick MALLEJACQ, Secretary General - World Road Association

Patrick Mallejacq, PIARC Secretary General, speaking during the plenary session

Each Strategic Theme incorporates a number of Technical Committees, and all Committees met during a three-day kick-off meeting in Paris, from 16 February to 10 March 2016.

Over the 2016-2019 cycle, special importance will be paid to the quality, value-added and timeliness of the outputs of the Association, with a renewed emphasis on dissemination of those products. Attention to low and middle income countries will remain an important consideration during the coming cycle.

The main purpose of the Paris meetings was to discuss expected outputs and challenges that the Committee might face during the work phase, so as to initiate a prompt start to their work. Another goal was to give the experts the opportunity to meet their working partners, with whom they will work closely for the next four years. Such contacts at personal level are indeed one of the strengthsof the Association.

Oscar GUTIERREZ Strategic Theme Coordinator for Theme D - World Road Association

Oscar Gutierrez (Spain), Strategic Theme Coordinator for Theme D Infrastructure, presenting the Strategic Plan 2016-2019 during the plenary session

Our experts were also able to get to know the PIARC General Secretariat staff , including the Technical Advisors who act as contact point between the Technical Committees and the General Secretariat. Participants appreciated the opportunity to meet experts from other Technical Committees and a lot of interesting discussions took place both during the sessions and during the breaks.

Each meeting started with a one day plenary session with presentations regarding general information about PIARC's strategy and procedures and the upcoming work of the 2016-2019 cycle. Separate meetings were then organized over the two following days for each of the 18 Committees. Each Committee has an appointed chairman, who had prepared his/her Committee's meeting beforehand together with a French, a Spanish and an English speaking secretary. All Technical Committees have discussed their work over the 2016-2019 cycle with respect to their own background and experience and to the objectives detailed in the Strategic Plan. Working groups and corresponding leaders for the different issues were also identified, which will guarantee an efficient working structure through the four years.

Meeting of the PIARC Technical Committee - World Road Association

Each Technical Committee had two days of meeting to discuss the work program

The next step for the Committees will be to reach out to the members who could not be present and finalize their work plan for the whole 4-year cycle so as to ensure efficient delivery of different outputs. These outputs are actually references in the field of roads and road transport; the Technical Committees are also encouraged to work and publish products continuously during the four years. All Technical Committees are also expected to organize two international seminars in low and middle income countries during the four year cycle. Committee meetings are supposed to be held at least two times a year and most Committees were during the discussions in Paris able to identify locations and times for the next meetings and seminars.

Participating experts have been very engaged in the discussions during the meetings, and the meeting was a success. Congratulations to our experts for their hard work and enthusiasm!

Members of the Technical Committee D.3 Bridges - World Road Association

Technical Committee D.3 Bridges