PIARC has launched its new Strategic Plan
22 January – 14 February 2020, Champs‐sur‐Marne (France)
PIARC has launched its new Strategic Plan by organizing kick-off meetings for all its 22 Technical Committees and Task Forces. A thousand experts from about 50 countries participated in the meetings in order to discuss how to organize their work for the next four-year cycle.
The new Strategic Plan covers years 2020 to 2023 and details the topics that the Association will focus on over the next cycle, in line with the goal of the Association to remain a leading international forum for creating and disseminating knowledge on all topics related to roads and road transport. They are organised in Four Strategic Themes: Road Administration; Mobility; Safety and Sustainability; and Resilient Infrastructure cover 22 Technical Committees and Task Forces, and all of them met during a three-day kick-off meeting in Paris, from 22 January to 14 February 2020.
Over the 2020 - 2023 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 paid to low- and middle-income countries will remain an important consideration during the coming cycle. All Committees are for example expected to organize two international seminars in low- and middle-income countries during the four-year cycle, and many were identified during those kick-off meetings
The main purpose of the kick off meetings was to discuss expected outputs, so as to initiate a prompt start to their work. The experts also had 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 strengths of the Association.
All Technical Committees were able to discuss and structure their work over the 2020 - 2023 cycle with respect to the experts’ 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.
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 2020 - 2023 cycle. Separate meetings were then organized over the two following days for each of the 22 Committees. Each Committee has an appointed chairman, who had prepared his/her Committee's meeting beforehand together with the French, a Spanish and an English speaking secretaries.
PIARC experts also met PIARC General Secretariat staff, including the Technical Advisors who act as contact points between the Technical Committees and the General Secretariat.
The road to Calgary 2022 and Prague 2023
The next step for the Committees will be to finalize their work plan for the whole 4-year cycle to ensure efficient delivery of different outputs. This way, in addition to the technical reports for which the Association is renowned, PIARC will be able to produce and disseminate case studies, briefing notes, webinars, seminars, position papers, etc. The delivery schedule for these productions now spans the entire four-year cycle, with the first PIARC products of the cycle expected by the end of 2020.
All these products will be presented during the next PIARC Congresses, in Calgary in 2022 for the Congress on resilience and on winter service and in Prague in 2023 for the next World Road Congress